London Mayor Ken Livingstone has invited companies to submit bids to make the Greater London Authority Group’s buildings more energy efficient.
An initial wave of ” up to 100 buildings” to receive an efficiency upgrade will include a number of landmark office buildings such as Transport for London’s head quarters at Windsor House.
The initiative is the first step in taking forward the deal developed by the Clinton Climate Initiative for the C40 cities at the New York Large Cities Climate Summit in May 2007 to cut carbon emissions by making existing buildings more energy efficient.
Today’s announcement means London will be the first of the 16 cities signed up to the scheme to begin work. and is described as the start of a process “which will allow this offer to be opened to the whole of the public sector – a framework will be created that the public sector can use.”
The GLA Group includes Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police Authority and London Development Agency and operated 900 buildings. it’s expected that savings of up to 50,000 tonnes of carbon emissions could be made each year.
Speaking today Mr Livingstone said the capital was “leading the way by becoming the first of the sixteen cities signed up to the C40/Clinton Climate Initiative programme to begin work to cut climate change emissions by making our buildings more energy efficient.”
A notice is being placed in the Official Journal of the European Union, seeking expressions of interest for an initial contract.
Companies bidding will need to provide a range of services, including surveying and auditing the buildings to assess which are the most appropriate energy efficiency measures for the building. They will also need to will guarantee to meet an energy savings target over an agreed period.
The Mayor said he hoped the initiative “will also lead to a boost in London’s green industries.”
