Upgrade for Net Zero or Die: How Commercial Building Owners Must Respond to the Energy Crisis

It takes a crisis to change the world. Just as COVID-19 forced businesses to take remote working seriously, the energy crisis is doing the same for net zero. With energy costs doubling for some businesses over the last year and expected to climb for years to come, high consumers like supermarkets are facing a stark reality: it’s time to change or die.

For most businesses, that means upgrading existing building stock. Until now, the capital cost of energy-efficient building upgrades has been an inhibitor, accounting for the slow pace of progress towards net zero targets, but the energy crisis has shifted the economic balance. Payback times for on-site generation, for example, have halved from eight to 10 years to just four or five.

Where to start

Before considering on-site generation, however, building owners should first focus on energy efficiency. Too much energy is wasted due to sub-standard insulation and inefficient deployment of equipment. Refrigeration, for example, is responsible for 60% of a supermarket’s energy consumption, yet this could be cut by up to 40%, according to a 2020 report by the Environmental Investigation Agency, simply by putting doors on fridges.

The report added that if the top five supermarkets implemented this simple measure they could reduce the UK’s total electricity consumption by nearly 1%.

Further efficiencies can be realised by taking a circular approach to energy consumption. In Denmark, for example, the grocer SuperBrugsen has developed a way to use the heat given off from its refrigeration units to power the whole store. This is energy that has historically been expelled into the atmosphere, not only going to waste but also adding to the emissions burden. SuperBrugsen’s heat recovery unit tackles the problem from both ends and, to date, has saved the company over ￡110,000 in energy bills.

Measure to manage

The first step towards greater energy efficiency is measuring current consumption and knowing exactly where energy is being consumed and lost. This follows point one on the UK Green Building Council checklist for establishing value and ROI with regard to cost-effective building upgrades. The full list runs in the following order of priority:

1. Understanding the building?

2. Assessing what is required?

3. Making the business case?

4. Understanding barriers and opportunities?

5. Setting performance targets?

6. Establishing a standardised, scalable approach to multiple building or portfolio retrofits?

7. Building management and optimisation ?

8. Low-carbon building services and energy-efficient fabric upgrades?

9. Materials and circular thinking?

10. Monitoring and performance verification

So the monitoring of systems and equipment performance is the beginning and end of the building upgrade process, providing continuous feedback that enables systems to be fully automated and optimised; for instance, to adjust to seasonal variations and to reposition energy demand away from peak periods.

Energy efficient refurbishment?

It’s estimated that 80% of the building stock that will be in use in 2050, when the Government has set its net zero deadlines, has already been built. In this case, if net zero buildings are the future, changes need to be made to existing buildings to bring them up to standard.?

Examples of energy-efficient reconfigurations of existing buildings range from insulation to structural alterations that make better use of natural light and ventilation, to complete overhauls of systems such as HVAC, lighting, heating and in-store equipment. Replacing old, inefficient systems with new ones can be costly but in many cases, a return on investment can be expected within two years.

Another caveat is the carbon footprint associated with construction. Refurbishing existing buildings generally produces less greenhouse gas than new construction, especially when materials can be reused. This helps to instil a circular economy into the built environment, reducing waste and emissions while making the buildings themselves more efficient. ?

Where new construction forms part of the building refurbishment, prefabrication off-site lends further efficiency, provided that it happens close to the construction site to minimise transportation.

On-site generation

A major energy efficiency that many commercial building owners have yet to take advantage of is the installation of on-site power generation, such as solar panels, waste incinerators or biogas. Large superstores have the capacity for extensive roof-mounted solar power arrays, which can put a significant dent in their electricity bill.

By 2025, Morrisons expects to have fitted two-thirds of its building portfolio with solar panels, covering a total of 125 acres and generating over 100MW. This will supply a fifth of the company’s total power consumption.

Sainsbury’s has gone a step further with its store in Cannock. Rather than drawing power from the grid, the store is powered entirely by biogas, generated from an anaerobic digester fed with leftover food. Again, Sainsbury’s benefits twice from this innovation, saving both energy costs and the cost of sending waste food to landfill.

The time is now

These examples demonstrate the incentives for commercial property owners to explore the potential of their building assets and the importance of doing it now. Every day of delay is money wasted.?

There are multiple gains to be made, in both saving and generating energy, as well as reducing waste and making an important contribution to the environment, counterbalanced only by the capital cost involved. With energy prices going through the roof, that argument is no longer valid, if indeed it ever was. The crisis is upon us. It’s time to change the world

Other sources: The Grocer