FRONT DESK / ANALYSIS
G RE E N E NE RGY ST R ATEGY
Government ent en nt publishes its hydrogen gen gen ge en strategy by Herpreet Kaur Grewal
T
he government announced the UK’s first-ever hydrogen strategy this summer. Hydrogen has the potential to provide a third of the country’s energy, including to commercial and residential buildings. By 2030, hydrogen could play a crucial role in decarbonising polluting, energy-intensive industries such as chemicals, oil refineries, power and heavy transport by helping these sectors move away from fossil fuels. The government is consulting on the formulation of the £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund to support the deployment of low-carbon hydrogen production plants across the UK. Kwasi Kwarteng, the business and energy secretary, said the strategy “marks the start of the UK’s hydrogen revolution. This home-grown clean energy source has the potential to transform the way we power our lives
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and will be essential to tackling climate change and reaching net zero”. Steve McGregor, group managing director of property services specialist DMA Group, said: “Commercial and residential contributions of all sizes will help create a greener, safer environment for generations and it is vital that we begin building ambitious, large-scale infrastructure with cutting-edge green technologies across the UK. By unlocking targeted investment, grants and incentives the ambition of delivering better homes and buildings, cleaner air and a safer environment is in sight. But most crucially of all, it provides genuine optimism for British innovation after what has been a turbulent 18 months.” Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive at environmental body the UK Green Building Council, said: “How we decarbonise heat whilst delivering a fair transition for consumers is a fundamental issue for the UK’s built environment, and how our sector can play its part in reaching our national net zero target. As we look to decarbonise across the entire
construction and property value chain, hydrogen should be used where it adds most value, such as in certain industrial processes that are otherwise difficult to decarbonise. “The future use of hydrogen is just one element of our decarbonisation journey. We urge the government to release its Heat and Buildings Strategy without delay in order to give the sector both clarity and certainty on what the future of heat will look like.” Stewart Clements, director at the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council (HHIC), said: “Investment in hydrogen will not only, as the strategy states, create thousands of high-skill, well-paid jobs, it also safeguards the jobs and expertise we already have in our world-leading heating industry. “Our member companies are fully behind a transition from natural gas to zero carbon hydrogen and have already been hard at work creating ‘hydrogen-ready’ products, including boilers, cookers and fires that are currently being trialled. HHIC is actively involved in the UK hydrogen projects and has worked with manufacturers and the government on a definition for ‘hydrogen-ready’ boilers which could be rolled out from the middle of this decade.
IWFM IWF IW WFM FMM SUSTAINABILITY SURVEY 2021 Th The T he e 14t 14 14th 4th h annual IWFM su sus sta tai ain na ab b sustainability survey report, just p pu pub ubl blis ish he ed shows that carbon published, / ene en e ner erg gy y management and energy a ad add ddr dre ess ssi si addressing net zero is a sharply e es sca ca ala attin n concern among the escalating 311 peo 311 pe peop opl pl to have responded people to o the th he e 20 2 0 questionnaire. 2021 70 0 per pe per ce c cent of respondents – co c om mp mpa pa compared to 58 per cent in n 202 20 2020 20 0 and 35 per cent in 2020 2 20 018 8 – re 2018 reported that this was ttheir th he eir ir to ttop op p area of sustainability ffocus. fo oc cu us. s. Ne N Nevertheless, most sservice se erv rvic vice ce ep provider respondents sa aid d tha th tthat at they were more likely said to o pla pl p ay y a "supporting role" play rat ra ath he err th h rather than a leading one in th he eir ir org or o rg their organisation's carbon m ma an na ag ge e management planning.
The areas of carbon mentt management FM teams were least likely ny role in wa to have any wass e food sourc cing sustainable sourcing trifying fleet (40%), and d (43%), electrifying ty (conservation tion 39% biodiversity caping 35%). and landscaping 86 per cent of respondents additional forms of said that 'additional upskilling' would be essential for their personal sustainability knowledge and career development in the year ahead. The report's authors say that this shows "a real lack in the management level crossdelivery skills that are necessary
to make many sustainability programmes successful." One area of sustainability not seen as important or very important to at least half of survey respondents was biophilia (see article, right.). IWFM members can access the report by going to tinyurl.com/Fac0910-Sustain
FAC I L I TAT E S EP T EM B ER- O C TO B ER 2021
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