Livingstone launches green office makeover plan

The mayor of London has announced that up to 100 office buildings in the city will get energy-efficient improvements in order to make them greener.

Ken Livingstone has invited interested firms to submit bids to make the Greater London Authority Group’s buildings more energy efficient.

London’s offices currently produce 15m tonnes of CO2 per year and account for 33% of total emissions for the capital. It is hoped that after the work is complete the buildings will save up to 50,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year and more than £1m through lower energy bills.

A notice has been placed in the Official Journal of the European Union, seeking interest for an initial contract. The Transport for London headquarters at Windsor House will be one of the first to receive the green makeover.

London recently signed the Clinton Climate Initiative along with 16 other cities including New York and Tokyo, and is the first to take action to tackle carbon emissions.

The companies bidding for the contract will need to be able to provide a range of services, from surveying and auditing the buildings to assessing the most appropriate energy efficiency measures for the offices, such as, energy efficient lighting and combined heat and power.

Livingstone said: "London is leading the way by becoming the first of the 16 cities signed up to the C40/Clinton Initiative programme to begin work to cut climate change emissions by making our buildings more energy-efficient."

The Greater London Authority Group includes office buildings and operational transport, fire and police stations all of which could undergo energy saving developments when the contract is awarded early next year. Mr Livingstone said: “We have started the tender process for companies to bid for the first part of the work and I hope that this will also lead to a boost in London’s green industries.”