VOICES | JULIE GODEFROY The big reveal Disclosure of energy performance is coming. Julie Godefroy says now is the time to get ahead of the curve and contribute to CIBSE energy benchmarks and showcase developments and existing buildings C IBSE has long advocated for monitoring and disclosure of energy performance, and last year signed a joint industry call1 asking for regulations of this issue. CIBSE itself has, for a number of years, had a voluntary Display Energy Certificate (DEC) in its own headquarters in Balham, London. Government is expected to take an important step in the near future, with a consultation introducing mandatory operational energy ratings for nondomestic buildings (currently DECs are only required for public buildings). CIBSE members can get ahead of the curve, demonstrate the industry is ready for energy performance disclosure, and contribute their R32 VRV and F-Gas phase down data to showcase their performance and help define best practice. In 2019, the CIBSE benchmarks were significantly upgraded, moving to an online platform2 and now presented as curves showing the distribution of energy consumption per building type, rather than only providing typical and good practice benchmarks. Moving online offers significant opportunities and CIBSE has plans for further developments: one is the creation of new benchmark categories (for example, homes). Another is that, in the future, organisations will be able to feed data, either to create a new benchmark category relevant to their organisation, or to contribute to the overall distribution curve for existing benchmark category. There will also be the potential to showcase projects or portfolios within the overall spread of buildings. Please get in touch if you would like to nd out more and would be interested to contribute in-use energy consumption data. This could include projects you have been involved with, or your organisations own offices, and the data could be used anonymously or not. CIBSE is interested in all types of buildings as more data will add to the robustness of the benchmarks; we are also keen to showcase low-energy consumption buildings, in order to stretch the current distribution curves towards the best-performance end. These best-practice examples can then be put in the context of industry targets such as the RIBA 2030 Challenge or London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI). Your contribution will help the work of CIBSE and others to define best-practice energy use and support the transition to net-zero carbon. It will also help you assess your buildings performance against the stock, identify what your potential performance could be, and prepare for future energy disclosure requirements. Brought to you by: Current consultation: EPC C-rated homes by 2030 DR JULIE GODEFROY is technical manager at CIBSE REGISTER FREE AT bit.ly/cibsewebinars WEBINAR AVAILABLE ON DEMAND Government has an ambition for most homes to achieve Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings of at least C by 2030, and it is consulting on how to achieve this in the private rented sector in England and Wales. Improving our existing stock is a huge part of achieving the UKs net-zero carbon target, and the Committee on Climate Change has highlighted that the governments plans need serious ramping up. This 18 November 2020 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Nov 2020 pp18-19 Julie Godefroy.indd 18 23/10/2020 15:41