Legislation

As the problem of climate change becomes mainstreamed, the policy response has become more hardline and there has been an increase in environmental legislation. The government has recently introduced measures that will require public sector premises to audit their energy usage and to report on their progress made. This will aid benchmarking towards the goal of a 33% increase in energy savings across the public sector by 2020.

Government measures such as the introduction of the Building Energy Rating System (BER), which applied to business premises from 2008, and the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs are just some of the measures that will impact on the public sector. See below for a full list of regulations that will impact on the public sector. Rather than aiming for mere compliance with impending regulation, the public sector should try to act ahead of these regulations and aim for leadership and best practice.

Energy Performance Building Directive EPBD – A key requirement of the EPBD is display of a Building Energy Rating (BER) for all new public service buildings over 1000m² from July 2008. The directive was applied to large existing public buildings from Jan 2009. It will demonstrate improvements in energy efficiency and conservation over time and will lead to transparency of energy performance.
Lighting – CFL light bulbs have been introduced to in to all public bodies since the end of 2007, and local authorities now must ensure that street lighting and traffic lighting are energy efficient.
Public sector organisation emissions targets – Every public service organisation is required to adopt emissions targets and to benchmark and report annually on their progress according to measures laid out in Ireland's second National Energy Efficiency Action Plan to 2020.
Offsetting official air travel – The Government has put in place an offsetting scheme for business flights taken by ministers and civil servants.
Energy initiatives in schools – The government is installing biomass heating in schools, starting with 8 schools in summer 2007 with a view to expansion in the future. Additionally, the Department of Education and Science, together with SEAI, have developed generic, low-energy school building designs that reduce energy costs and usage and will be applied in 40 new schools.
The OPW, as the property manager for public buildings, has developed a multi-tiered strategy to reduce energy consumption and therefore greenhouse gases through the following measure:

Heating Fuel Conversion Programme – This programme aims to convert heating systems in about 20 large public buildings from oil or gas burners to biomass burners.
Energy Awareness Campaigns – A pilot staff energy awareness campaign has been launched in 20 OPW buildings with a target to reduce energy consumption by 10%.
Energy Efficient Design of New Buildings – In its new buildings, the OPW has specified higher energy standards in building design and sustainable construction and is promoting the greater use of bio-energy.