Give Me an "F" For Failing Government Department

If you are the government department tasked with reducing public buildings' carbon emissions, you would want to make sure when you implemented Display Energy Certificates for all government buildings, that your building was, well efficient.

However, Eland House, the headquarters of the Communities and Local Government, who is tasked to do just that has been handed a quite poor 'F' rating, which was only the second worst rating it could have received.

Eland House was designed by EPR Architects and built by Mowlem for Land Securities, and completed in 1998. The steel and glass structure in London is 59 m (152 ft) high, with 11 floors providing 35,000 m² (376,250 sq ft) of office space housing 2,500 staff. It incorporates a number of environmental features including a cogeneration plant and active solar panels.

Energy assessors visited the building ahead of the October introduction of regulations requiring public buildings to display evidence of their energy performance. Buildings which are frequently visited by the public, whether wholly or only partly publicly owned, and are larger than 1,000 metres squared, must prominently display their energy rating.

"Our rating for Eland House tells us we must clearly do better to make a difference to our energy performance. We are now acting on recommendation from our advisory report to help us improve future ratings."
Communities and Local Government

Officials from the departments excuse was poor heating and ventilation and heating systems, as well as higher occupancy than expected affected the building's energy performance. It's a shame when an organisation that should be taking a lead in reducing its own carbon emissions, doesn't practice what they preach, certainly this will leave some senior civil servants red faced. Lets hope that their next rating will show considerable improvement.

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