The Carbon Trust has awarded Defence Estates the Carbon Trust Standard for its efforts towards managing its carbon footprint.
Defence Estates was given the award for its progress towards its target of reducing carbon emissions from its estate by 30% by 2020.
Vice Admiral Tim Laurence, chief executive of Defence Estates, said: “We are proud to be among the first 240 organisations to have received this standard in recognition of our work to monitor and manage our energy consumption. This is a significant achievement which emphasises our position as a lead in …

Property investors Blackstone Group and Prupim have joined a London Development Agency partnership to cut energy waste from commercial properties in London.

Today, the Better Buildings Partnership announced its two new supporters at its annual brunch at City Hall in London. BBP is one of the LDA’s climate change programmes that aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2025. The target was set by London mayor Boris Johnson (pictured).
The LDA launched the BBP in 2007 alongside a sister initiative the Green 500, which aims to attract 500 organisations …

By David Goatman, head of sustainability at Knight Frank
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If you work for a local authority then you will be affected by the Carbon Reduction Commitment, the UK emissions trading scheme that comes into force on 1 April 2010.
Here are five tips for you to focus on:
1) Learn what CRC is
If you are a local authority or a central government department, you will be in the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.
This is a compulsory carbon emission cap and trade scheme for all organisations using over 6,000MWh of electricity per year. You will …

Local councils are falling behind in their bid  to meet central government targets on cutting carbon dioxide emissions, a conference has heard.
Today, at the Royal Town Planning Institute’’s annual conference Key Planning Issues 2010 in London, the Communities and Local Government head of planning resources and environmental policy Stephanie Hurst  said that planners had not made enough progress on sustainability.
However, planners are to come under greater pressure as the government has targets to make new homes zero carbon by 2016 and new commercial buildings zero carbon by 2019.
Hurst said the …

A coalition of local authorities and other public sector bodies has named Leeds, Liverpool and Sussex as trial areas for planning strategies to cut energy waste.
Today, the Low Emissions Strategies Partnership – whose management board includes representatives from Greenwich, Sheffield and Wigan councils – named three partners it would work with on Low Emissions Strategies: they are Sussex, Liverpool City Region and Leeds City Region.
Low Emissions Strategies are intended to spread best practise about using the planning system to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
The Sussex Air Quality Partnership and Lewes District …

Planners should take the lead in UK efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles and buildings, says guidance from the government launched today.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the government-sponsored Low Emissions Strategies Partnership said in their 35-page report Low Emissions Strategies Good Practice Guidance that councils should put into place a low emissions strategy. It said planners should help reduce carbon dioxide emissions from building and transport.
The guidance sets out examples of best practice. John Paterson, chair of the Low Emissions Strategy Partnership Board, …

The government must put more pressure on its suppliers to cut their carbon emissions, the government’s green agency said today.
This morning, the Office of Government Commerce has revealed that the government cut its carbon emissions 10% in the 2008/9 financial year. It said this put Whitehall departments in a strong position to cut carbon emissions 12.5% by the end of March 2011 compared to the 1999/2000 baseline.
However, the Sustainable Development Commission – the government watchdog on sustainable development – said it still needed to do more to encourage its suppliers …

The government should put more pressure on the companies it works with if it wants to cut its carbon emissions, a report on the government has advised.
On Wednesday, independent charity the Carbon Disclosure Project published a 44-page study “CDP Public Procurement Report for the UK Government”. It said government suppliers were not doing enough to understand their carbon dioxide emissions, and those that had set targets fell short of the government aims to cut carbon emissions 34% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
It also reported that suppliers in the property …