Modern Building Services

18 MODERN BUILDING SERVICES NOVEMBER 2021 NET ZERO A s far as all things net- zero, carbon-neutral or energy-efficient go, SMEs rarely form the main subject of conversation. But with companies with fewer than 250 employees accounting for almost 20 per cent of the UK’s total carbon emissions, perhaps they should: it’s clear that these organisations yield enough influence to play a critical role in delivering the UK’s ambitious greening agenda. This is why in 2019, the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) launched an innovation competition called “Boosting Access for SMEs to Energy Efficiency” (BASEE). The initiative was developed to encourage a dynamic and forward-looking energy services market that would support a pool of c.6 million small businesses to improve their energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2030. As part of the second phase of this Government project, Scottish proptech arbnco was awarded a £641,000 contract to pilot its Digital Energy Efficiency platform (DEEP) – software designed to simplify the process for SMEs to engage with energy efficiency. By then bringing Centrica on board – the UK’s largest utility company with 350,000 commercial customers and 500,00 buildings – arbnco has been able to access an extensive SME client base and help to begin to address this market failure. Because it’s not that appetite for change among SMEs is lacking: research by the Carbon Trust has shown that 51%of this cohort areeager to domore around energy efficiency. Capturing the group critical to net-zero: SMEs A year into the Government initiative to help SMEs UK-wide exploit data to achieve net zero, Simon West , CEO and cofounder of Scottish proptech arbnco, reflects on the key lessons learnt from its project with British Gas . FEATURE NET ZERO