World Energy Efficiency Day Energy Efficient Buildings sustainable energy

Since 1998, March 5th has marked World Energy Efficiency Day. Emerging in Austria during the First International Meeting on Energy Efficiency, this day aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce energy consumption through reasonable and sustainable use of energy.

Boosting energy efficiency doesn’t have to be at a cost to comfort and quality of daily life. It is important that we enhance energy efficiency by optimising production processes and energy consumption by using renewable energy sources and encouraging responsible consumption and recycling.

Why is energy efficiency important to Bruntwood?
Improving our energy efficiency standards is a key part of Bruntwood’s commitment to reaching Net Zero Carbon by 2030. We’re dedicated to operating as a low-waste business so, even prior to making our sustainability commitments, we’ve been incorporating energy-efficient features into our buildings for some time now.

Through our purpose of creating thriving cities, we believe in investing for the long-term. And that means creating spaces for people to live healthy, happy lives; spaces that aren’t heavily polluted and allow them to live sustainably.

How are we tackling energy efficiency?
Incorporating energy-efficient features into our buildings has been key to our fit outs for a number of years. Introducing smart technologies to our buildings gives us key insight into how our buildings are running and operating, which in turn means that we can make real time interventions when problems arise and constantly improve upon the way we operate.

We’ve been awarded ISO50001 certification thanks to the creation of our energy management system which enables us to use energy more efficiently. As part of this we have created an energy policy; established goals to meet this; created a data management programme to support our goals; and will make continuous improvements by monitoring the effectiveness of the standards and procedures we’ve put in place.

In October 2020, we officially launched a new business, Unify Energy. As a fully licensed energy supplier, Unify Energy offers an end to end solution for the supply and management of energy within multi-tenanted buildings.

“As part of the Bruntwood Group, Unify Energy has combined sustainability strategy and targets, but as an energy supply business, we arguably have a greater responsibility to help the rest of our Group and customers to achieve those goals,” explains CEO of Unify Energy, Sarah Martin. “In being as efficient and carbon neutral as possible, by default our customers are too.”

By placing innovation at the heart of our sustainability efforts, we’re able to help our business, our customers, and our customers’ businesses to really make an impact on their energy usage and reduce their carbon footprint.

How does this benefit customers?
All of our work to improve energy efficiency across our buildings has a positive impact on our customers, too. As we introduce more smart meters and smart technology, our customers will be able to monitor their own energy usage to take steps to reduce not only consumption and emissions, but cost, too.

The use of renewable energy across our buildings automatically means that customers are reducing their own carbon footprint and using energy in the responsible way highlighted by World Energy Efficiency Day. We know that our customers want to make a difference to the environment and our commitment to energy efficiency will help them on this journey. And with over 75% of millennials considering organisation’s environmental commitments when deciding where to work, it will help them attract and retain staff, too.

What projects are we involved with externally?
But our work doesn’t just stop at our buildings. We’re also part of the research and development project, ENERGY-IQ, led by Manchester tech start-up Qbots Energy. The aim of the project is to demonstrate smart energy services for office buildings, retail and hospitality in Greater Manchester and beyond.

Also in Greater Manchester, we’re part of a local energy market project with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and a number of other partners. The Greater Manchester Local Energy Market project aims to revolutionise the region’s energy networks to support a lower carbon future. By increasing energy efficiency and paving the way for new technology and low-carbon infrastructure, the project will be helping the region to reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2038.

Ultimately, all of this comes down to being good for the planet. Concerns about climate change have increased across the globe in recent years, and rightly so. Energy consumption is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change. It is down to all of us to use energy more efficiently and businesses have a big part to play.

If you want a workspace that can help you use energy more efficiently and enable your business to become more sustainable, take a look at our spaces.