The figures presented are for the year October 2005 to September 2006. More tables and a fuller analysis of our environmental performance is included in the 2006 Annual Report.

Targets

In the past, we have used the standards set by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to assess our performance in electricity and gas consumption and their associated carbon emissions. However those targets are increasingly outdated, having been devised in the 1980s and early 1990s when there was much less electronic equipment in offices but also when gas boilers and other appliances were less efficient.

BRE gives energy targets by type, with the type of buildings as follows:

Type 1: Naturally ventilated cellular
Type 2: Naturally ventilated open-plan
Type 3: Air-conditioned standard
Type 4: Air-conditioned prestige

We have created new building types based on the BRE types which better reflect the patterns of energy consumption in our buildings. We have also set our own targets for these new building types, which are based on the BRE targets but are more specifically tailored to our particular building stock and in most cases make higher demands on us than the BRE standards. The table below sets out these new targets compared to the BRE targets. These targets set reductions of between 4% and 36% on the BRE targets, and so also on the targets used in last year's report. We have no buildings comparable to BRE type 4.

For future years, in line with Friends of the Earth's Big Ask, we will be reducing these targets by 3% per annum, and also looking to reduce our overall carbon impact by an average of 3% per annum from 2005 levels.

Year-on-year energy targets can be misleading because of the impact that different weather conditions have on demand for heating and cooling. There is publicly available data in the form of 'degree days' designed to compensate for this effect and we will consider the value of incorporating this into our reports in future years.

The targets are expressed in kilowatt hours of energy use per square metre of total floor area (kWh/m²).

Gas use
(measured in kilowatt hours per square metre of total floor area per year)

Data for the Green Fish Resource Centre was not available due to difficulties of separating the meter from other tenants in the property

Gas consumption across our centres has decreased again this year, by 18% overall. 5 of the 14 buildings listed had usage below our best practice target for their building type and all but one met its satisfactory target. However, the low usage at Development House was partly the result of one of the boilers breaking down, which was clearly unsatisfactory for our tenants.

As expected, Brighton Eco-Centre has seen a marked improvement in gas consumption since its old, inefficient boiler was replaced in 2005 and Brunswick Court has continued with its good performance following the boiler replacement in 2004. The improvement at Archway is attributable to the installation of new temperature controls.

We expect a further reduction in gas use at Roundhay Road this year, as we have replaced the single-glazed windows with double-glazing. Usage at Scotia Works should also go down now that we are making better use of the computerised Building Management System which controls the heating.

Only Durham Road has failed to meet its satisfactory target. This is partly due to the poor insulation in the building but also to the age of the boiler, which we were unable to replace this year, but expect to replace in the coming year.

Electricity use
(Measured in kilowatt hours per square meter of total floor areal per year)

As in previous years, meeting targets for electricity has been harder than for gas. Only two buildings, both at Colston Street, have succeeded in achieving their best practice target, whilst three centres have not met the satisfactory target. However, encouragingly, there has been an overall reduction of 10% in the amount of electricity used per square metre.

Congratulations are due to the tenants at Brighton Eco-Centre, whose energy-saving efforts this year are reflected in their big decrease in electricity consumption. Although consumption at Development House has decreased significantly this year, it is still much higher than in our other buildings. We believe that there may well be underlying technical reasons for this, which we are continuing to investigate. The continued high usage at the Grayston Centre and Archway also needs investigation, but may be attributable to relatively high density of occupation and the extensive use of artificial lighting because of low ceilings.

The significant increase at Picton Street is likely to be a reflection of the change of use of the ground floor from two underused offices to a shop. Higher usage at the Oxford Head Office is probably the result of the growth in staff numbers and IT equipment and consequently the amount of electrical equipment in use; nevertheless, the figure is within the satisfactory band for a building heated by electric night storage heaters. At 84 Colston Street the increase may be attributable to heavy use of electric heaters during cold spells. We plan to install a central heating system in Colston Street this year.

Part way through the year we further improved the gas central heating at the Oxford Action Centre by adding a radiator and fitting valves (TRVs) on the existing radiators. This should lead to a reduction in the use of electric heaters during the winter as well as giving better control of the gas heating.

Over the year, the solar panels at Brunswick Court generated 1676 kWh of electricity, which contributed to the supply at Brunswick Court. Under the Good Energy Home Generation Scheme, we earn 4.5p per kWh generated, which is credited back to the tenants' service charge account.

Carbon emissions
(Measured in kilowatt hours per square metre of total floor area per year)

We calculate our carbon emissions by multiplying our energy use figures by the standard conversion factors of 0.117 kg C/kWh for electricity and 0.0518 kg C/kWh for gas, as recommended by the Carbon Trust. We assume that renewable energy generates no carbon emissions. Similarly our targets for carbon emissions consider that all electricity should come from renewable sources. Therefore our carbon targets are based only on gas targets and assume that there will be no carbon emissions from electricity use. We have then re-calculated our carbon targets on this basis.

One of the main factors in this year's decrease in carbon emissions is the move to a renewable electricity supply at Development House at the end of the previous year.

All but three of our buildings used electricity from renewable sources this year. Complications with the supply contracts at Scotia Works and the Green Fish Resource Centre have made switching to a renewable supply difficult, but may be possible next year. For the Oxford Head Office we have recently negotiated a switch to a Climate Change Levy-exempt supply from Green Energy UK, which will be reflected in next year's report.

Carbon emissions at Durham Road are high due to the high gas use at the property described above.

Data was not available for the Green Fish Resource Centre.

Water use
Our new water consumption targets are based on litres used per person per day derived from the BREEAM for Offices 2004 prediction list. These are significantly lower then the Watermark targets used last year.

Water use in litres per person per day was as follows:

Overall our centres have not met our best practice targets, although the performance of eight of the properties did meet the satisfactory target. However it is encouraging that 8 centres have seen a reduction in water use since last year and average use overall is down by 13%.

To bring about these reductions, property managers have taken prompt action to repair leaks, tenants have been encouraged to be more economical with water and we are gradually replacing large old-fashioned cisterns with dual flush toilets.

As with electricity, the increased water use at Picton Street does not seem to reflect a particular problem but simply the fact that the building has been used for longer hours by more people since the opening of the shop.

Substantial reductions in water consumption will require not just monitoring and awareness building but significant investment in water saving features such as low flush toilets and spray taps. We will undertake this investment over a period of four years with a view to reaching best practice targets.

Travel to work
During the second and third weeks of September 2006, our senior property managers conducted a snapshot survey, asking the staff of our tenants how they travel to work. The results are summarised in the table below. This table also shows which centres provide secure bicycle parking, showers and car parking.

Bicycle parking is free and car parking is charged to individual users, except for disabled car parking spaces, which are free. To encourage green travel, we improve access to secure bike racks where possible, install and maintain showers and inform tenants about public transport options to their centre and tax incentives that employers can use.

The national average in 2002 for the number of people driving to work, including car sharing and using a park and ride, was 69%. However this would be a very unambitious target for us. Given the lack of recognized and realistic targets, we have chosen to set our own "best practice" and "satisfactory" levels for individuals coming by car or moped of 5% and 20% respectively.

7 centres achieved best practice last year, with three, including the Oxford head office, having zero car use. The Oxford Action Centre achieved 0% car use for the fourth year in a row. 5 buildings are achieving satisfactory levels and only Roundhay Road is not performing satisfactorily, compared to 6 last year.

As an employer, The Ethical Property Company provides a wide range of incentives to facilitate green travel. We provide company bikes, season ticket loans, a relaxed dress code, a larger relocation allowance if you live near your work, phone conferencing facilities, flexible working hours and scope for home working.

Waste and recycling
Recycling and waste minimisation have always been a feature of our property management and in most of our centres we provide facilities to recycle paper, cardboard, glass, cans and ink cartridges. Some also have plastics and organic waste recycling. However, up till now we have not assessed our performance in this area as systematically as we have in others. This year we have started to implement a waste reduction strategy, which aims to help our staff and tenants to:

• reduce consumptions of disposable items
• re-use disposable items
• recycle where reduction or re-use are not possible

The main indicators of the success of the strategy will be on the one hand a reduction in the overall volume of waste produced at our properties and on the other an increase in the proportion of the total waste that is recycled.

The first stage of the strategy is to assess our current position. This will enable us to set targets and monitor the effectiveness of our waste management in each of our buildings.

Following advice from the Environmental Information Exchange at Oxford Brookes University, we have begun a programme of waste audits, measuring overall amounts of waste and recycling produced in our buildings and the proportion of material in general waste bins that could have been recycled.

So far, we have conducted spot checks of the contents of the general waste bins at the Grayston Centre, Roundhay Road, Brunswick Court, and Colston Street. The table below shows the extent to which recyclable materials are currently not recycled.

The survey would indicate that far more waste is being produced at Brunswick Court than at other centres. However, as this was only a spot check survey, these figures may be misleading.

Although we only have results from four centres so far, a clear pattern is emerging of far more waste going to landfill/incineration than necessary, especially paper and organic waste. In the Grayston Centre, 75% of waste sent to landfill could have been recycled.

One of our tenants, Waste Watch, kindly helped us identify the main barriers to recycling amongst our tenants in Development House. These lessons can be applied to our other centres as well. It is clear that there is a lot of goodwill towards recycling, but that poor information and a lack of convenient facilities leads to recyclable materials being thrown away or put in the wrong bins.

In the coming year we will be introducing better signage for recycling in our buildings and will also be making more recycling bins available. We would like to introduce better composting at our centres, but as yet we have not found an effective system for doing this.

In next year's annual report we intend to report the results of regular waste audits at all our centres. We will also compare our performance against targets which we will set during the course of the year.

The Ethical Property Company, The Old Music Hall, 106-108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JE
Tel: 01865 207810 Local calls 0845 458 3853 Fax: 01865 207828 Email Us
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