The first ever Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme Performance League Table was published this month, setting a baseline for future efforts to improve energy use. In total, 22 organisations, including restaurant chains, supermarkets, retailers, hospitals, government departments and local authorities, shared the top spot. They included Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust.
Altogether 2,000 organisations were covered, each marked on early action, absolute emissions and growth to give an overall score in terms of energy efficiency. Initiatives taken into consideration included the installation of smart meters and how they comply with Carbon Trust, or equivalent, energy management standards.
The figures show that 60% of organisations have taken action, and this will provide a basis for more indepth analysis next year.
The Environment Agency’s director of environment and business, Ed Mitchell, said: “The UK needs its hospitals, high street shops, major businesses, councils, government departments and other big energy users to use less electricity to help meet tough carbon reduction targets.
“This scheme encourages all big organisations to measure and reduce energy use, which in turn should also save them money and help cut the UK’s carbon footprint.”
Commenting on its success, John Rhodes, deputy director of estates and facilities and CRC project lead at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We take energy efficiency extremely seriously and any opportunity to save money, reduce wastage and cut carbon is an essential part of our management plan. We are on course to reducing our emissions by 10% by 2015, which was pledged in the NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy.”
Barbara Cummings, director of performance and informatics at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, added: “This is excellent news for the trust and for the local environment. We are fully committed to green issues and totally support the NHS initiative to reduce the overall carbon footprint for the health service. Our rating in first place in the league table is good news for our staff. Better still is the knowledge that we are making a real improvement to the environment in this part of the county. However, we will not let it rest there. We plan to find ways to improve our performance and efficiency still further.”