Improving the Use of Energy in Buildings

Infrastructure Support: Certification and Standards

The Foundation's very first programme, in 1990, was to take a locally developed way of assessing the energy efficiency of new homes (the Milton Keynes Energy Cost Index) and extend to it provide national coverage for all types of home, new or existing - the National Home Energy Rating. Since them we have continued to provide support for energy labelling and certification schemes, as well as helping the renewable energy and energy management sectors develop robust standards.

We have helped develop international energy management standards, for example through our work in the UK Sector Forum for Energy Management (BSi), the CEN Joint Working Groups on Energy Efficiency Calculations and Savings and on Energy Efficiency Benchmarking, the ISO TC-257 Energy Savings technical committee, the Solar Keymark, and the ASEAN Energy Managers Accreditation Scheme (AEMAS - PDF summary of the Phase I project). We are keen to work on projects in this area that will benefit from the UK experience in this area, including the Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme for companies managed by the Foundation prior to the establishment of the Carbon Trust Standard.

Collaborative Projects

The Foundation has worked on selected international projects where it can add real value to the team or introduce innovative concepts into the UK. Examples of past or current projects include:

• Win4RES, a Intelligent Energy Europe Project that will create a new pan-European renewable energy portal over the 2011-14 period;
• ENERFISH, a European Research Project looking at producing biodiesel from the waste generated at a fish processing plant in Vietnam;
• EurActive Roofer, an EU-funded project enabling the exchange of information between energy experts and roofing contractors, with a special focus on photovoltaics (PV) and SMEs in the two sectors. A summary of the outcomes of the project, as they relate to the UK, is maintained on our EurActive Roofer micro-site;
• Pellets@las, creating a public database providing up-to-date pellet market information based on comprehensive data collection all over Europe;
• The cRRescendo project, which incorporates a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant with private wire network, Enhanced Building Fabric (EBF) and Photovoltaics on residential and commercial buildings in central Milton Keynes;
• Act on Climate Today! (Grasping of Climate) - a project introducing climate change to schoolchildren through drama and interactive exhibits; and
• Renewable Energy for Sustainable Tourism (REST), which took the innovative ideas of a German hotel and introduced them to hotels across Europe, including the UK.

We are always interested in working in new partnerships at the European level and globally, providing that they help reduce carbon dioxide emissions through better energy management, energy efficiency or using appropriate renewable energy resources. Our expertise is centred around energy efficiency in buildings, small-scale integrated renewable energy, development of robust certification and standards and encouraging behavioural change.

We are experienced in working on EU projects funded through Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE - SAVE & Altener) or the Framework (FP7 - ENERGIE & Concerto) programmes. We do not receive core funding, so expect projects to be financially self-sustaining, as well as cost-effective in terms of carbon reductions.

Find Out More

If you are planning a collaborative project in the area of sustainable energy or mitigating climate change that could benefit from our expertise, then please get in touch.

For further information contact our International Projects Team on 01908 665555.