The Council owns and manages a large number of buildings used for a variety of purposes including offices, libraries, leisure centres, community centres and depots. These vary considerably in size, age, condition and location across the borough.
Maintenance has an important part to play in reducing CO2 emissions, and the Council cyclical maintenance of heating and air conditioning will be used to maximise energy efficiency. This will include prioritising repairs to faults that cause energy to be wasted.
The Council has established a systematic approach to energy monitoring, based on electronic data retrieval systems. This monitoring system analyses energy use to identify the worst performing buildings, enabling energy saving improvement works to be targeted where they are needed most and where they will deliver the greatest cost savings.
All major refurbishment works on Council buildings and all new Council buildings will have sustainable development principles included the design and delivery. Examples of this include
- The refurbishment and rewiring of the town hall which includes energy efficient lighting using sensors to switch off lighting when a work area is not in use, saving an estimated £3,000 a year from the electricity bill
- The Building Schools for the Future programme, which is creating new school buildings across the borough and will include renewable energy technologies. Each has a target of generated 20 per cent of its energy use from renewable features.
Lewisham has a policy of buying electricity from renewable sources when it is practically possible. From 2000-2004 the Council purchased 100 per cent green electricity. Due to the lack of availability the Council currently uses 80 per cent green electricity, but our intention is to raise this back to 100 per cent.
The Council has developed a Green Procurement Guide, which is designed to help staff, contractors and suppliers better understand the environmental issues that surround our purchase of products and services including energy supplies.