Carbon Neutral Question Mark

The carbon footprint of property from a large office block to a single house is increasingly coming to prominence. More and more companies are becoming aware of their heating, lighting and other environment-related service costs and want to occupy buildings which more than just acknowledge this. Even refurbishment schemes now have to be serious about such issues if they are to be successful.

With housing, the implementation of the HIPs means that every vendor has to have a report detailing issues such as heat loss and insulation values. A poor score on these is likely to mean the house is either harder to sell or will sell at a lesser figure. This is bound to mean that house owners will start to take the business of insulation and green heating and lighting far more seriously. All these items have to be considered as part of a house purchase and a good structural survey will now take them into account and give appropriate advice.

For commercial property, certain buildings, where the public can enter, have to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) from the 1st October 2008. This is not like the residential HIP, but far more complex. It should not be undertaken lightly and it can be expensive. Commercial property owners need to know whether they have to do this or whether they can defer the cost which, these days, is an important consideration.