Going Green: Little Green Truck Part 2b

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Little Green Truck: Government Targets

The Little Green Truck campaign, sponsored by Michelin and Shell

The Government has aggressive targets for cutting carbon emissions from buildings. This includes a 20% reduction by 2010 and a 60% reduction by 2050. It has obliged power companies to increase their renewable sources every year, and this includes buying power from microgeneration plants. So far, the obligations all extend to the suppliers of energy and construction, and not to customers. For more information on guidelines and targets, see the UK Green Building Council report on ‘Zero carbon in non-domestic buildings’, which is available at www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/carbonreductionsreport.pdf

By 2016, all new housing will have to be zero carbon, and communities and local government will be consulting later this year on extending this zero-carbon obligation to new non-domestic buildings by 2019. While it is accepted that making all existing buildings zero carbon is too difficult a feat, we may see an increased amount of offsetting expected from commercial energy users. For instance, it’s likely new builds will not all be able to generate their own energy. Therefore, their owners may be expected to invest appropriately in renewable energy elsewhere. This may be extended to existing buildings. One way or another, between increased legislation and soaring energy prices, no business will be able to ignore renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Supporting the Little Green Truck: Michelin and Shell

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