Agenda item

(Report of the Interim Chief Operating Officer. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Housing). The report seeks agreement to an award of contract to deliver an Investment Grade Proposal (IGP) and a programme of works as per the information contained in the IGP.

Exempt information pertaining to the report is set out under Item 20 below.

Cabinet considered a report, introduced by the Leader of the Council, which sought approval to an award of contract for the Re:Fit Energy Efficiency Programme.

In introducing the report the Leader noted that Haringey had led on the low carbon agenda as the first borough in the UK to sign the Friends of the Earth pledge to reduce borough wide emissions by 40% by 2020. In order to demonstrate this commitment the Council had committed to deliver a 40% reduction from Local Authority operations by 2014/15, five years ahead of the borough wide target. In order to drive this forward the Re:Fit Programme, created by the Greater London Authority, would enable to the Council to consolidate the remaining programme with a single Energy Services Company.  In addition to reducing carbon emissions a reduction in the Council’s electricity and gas consumption was guaranteed by the selected provider.

In response to a question from the Leader of the Opposition, Cabinet was advised that monitoring arrangements were built into the contract and that if the programme failed to deliver in whole, or in part, the provider would pay the Council equivalent of any savings shortfall.

RESOLVED:

That the contract be awarded to Imtech Limited to deliver:

a)      An Investment Grade Proposal (“IGP”) – a document which details specifically the work that will be done, the energy conservation measures that will be installed and provides a binding price and guarantee of energy/carbon savings.

b)      A programme of works as per the information contained in the IGP.

Alternative Options Considered

Do nothing – It was recognised that when the Council’s Carbon Management Target was agreed, prevailing technologies would only deliver a 27% reduction, with the remaining 13% achievable only through market innovation. In this context, the Council’s target is an aspirational one, and the Council has already exceeded a 27% reduction. In addition:

With the Academies programme gaining more conversions each year, it is possible that natural attrition will propel the Council to the closer to the 40% reduction, as the associated carbon emission will no longer be within the Council’s footprint (the Council has no operational control of Academy assets).

Inaction is incompatible with the Council’s proactive policies on Carbon Management, including the Haringey 40:20 initiative. The Council will not see the medium term benefits of greater energy and carbon cost avoidance.

Business as usual – Business Units within the Council work collaboratively to identify opportunities and implement ad-hoc energy efficiency projects, which is unlikely to facilitate the 40% reduction target.

Moving forwards, ad-hoc delivery would ensure that a limited number of projects are supported leading up to the target deadline of 2014/15, and that the Sustainable Investment Fund (“SIF”) is utilised only as and when funds become available.

The Council would be required to procure and project manage each initiative which will bottleneck resource for other requirements, such as mandatory reporting (Carbon Reduction Commitment, Greenhouse Gas Protocol) and billing query management.

Re:Fit – utilising Re:Fit will consolidate a number of energy efficiency opportunities into a single programme. This is anticipated to generate a minimum saving of 1,082 tonnes CO­₂ per annum, taking total CO­₂ reduction to 35% by project closure (anticipated in 2014/15). In addition:

This would facilitate greater upfront cost avoidance to the Council than the alternative options (as Re:Fit will deliver a suite of energy efficient works that the Council couldn’t deliver through business as usual).

The programme is managed by the Re:Fit Programme Delivery Unit, to augment resource in the Council. The scheme savings are guaranteed, meaning any budgets that do not achieve the expected savings from the energy efficiency works will be compensated to the value of the difference between the expected and achieved savings by the contractor.

Reasons for decision

To assist the Council deliver a 40% reduction from Local Authority operations by 2014/15, five years ahead of the borough wide target.