I've just used the excellent Bristol Switch & Save scheme to make an expected £90 per year saving on my home gas and electric bills! Can you do the same?

Very simple process - entering in your postcode, and a few basic details about your electricity and gas supplies, then the system presents a list of options in order of the overall saving. I decided to stay with my current supplier but on a different tariff. This wasn't the option which gave the most savings in total, but was still one of the highest, and means that my home energy costs won't change until late 2014.

Overall the system design is great and very simple to use, well done Centre for Sustainable Energy, Bristol City Council, and Bristol Pound.

Synertree says: New modeling suggests the UK industrial sector is wasting £2.2bn a year on energy bills that could be easily reduced. The full scale of the energy efficiency savings on offer to heavy industries was underlined this week with the release of a new report suggesting the UK's industrial sector is wasting up to £2.2bn a year.

The analysis was unveiled by the Energy Efficiency Financing (EEF) scheme, a corporate green lending service backed by engineering giant Siemens and the Carbon Trust consultancy that aims to provide "pay-as-you-save" financing to businesses, enabling them to undertake energy efficiency improvements at no upfront cost and then make repayments using the resulting savings on energy bills.

The analysis was based on official sources and proprietary data collected by EEF on a number of key industrial sectors concluded that switching to cost-effective energy efficient equipment would deliver multi-billion pound savings to businesses.

"Our analysis has shown that there is a huge market potential for energy savings from business investment in energy-efficient equipment, amounting to over £3.7bn per year across the country, and around £2.2bn in the industrial sector alone," said Darren Riva, Head of Green Financing of the EEF scheme. "That potential energy saving covers motors, compressed air, high/low temperature processes, lighting and space heating, amongst others." The EEF initiative could help businesses realise these savings, allowing them to curb greenhouse gas emissions and energy bills without the need for capital expenditure.

"In the current credit squeeze, a major problem for firms has been access to affordable finance to enable business to make those green investments," he said. "That is why EEF was created - a joint financing initiative between the Carbon Trust and Siemens - to make finance more accessible and affordable for companies, especially SMEs. The EEF scheme matches monthly payments to real monthly energy cost savings, which means that firms effectively end up paying no extra for their new equipment investment."

Myles McCarthy, Managing Director of Carbon Trust Implementation Services, said growing numbers of businesses were taking up the new offer and using financing to fund the deployment of a wide range of energy savings technologies such as new LED lighting systems and biomass heating. But he added that there was a compelling case for more firms to investigate energy efficiency savings.

"These figures demonstrate the huge opportunity businesses have to save energy and cost," he said. "Wise businesses who ensure their operations are using energy efficiently in these difficult economic times will reap huge benefits."

The report came as the World Building Council this week unveiled a new report detailing the increasingly compelling business case for investment in greener buildings.

The report, entitled Business Case for Green Building: A Review of the Costs and Benefits for Developers, Investors and Occupants, explores how green building designs and technologies can deliver long term cost savings to investors, property owners, and occupants.

Synertree Says: Synertree attended the workshop to provide feedback on the GHG calculator through the DECC stakeholder consultation. The tool presented is based on the DECC 2050 Pathways calculator but focuses on biomass production and use. This 'calculator' is perhaps better described as a policy tool as it models potential GHG emissions for different biomass feedstocks, but also investigates the GHG impacts of different aspects of the carbon balance, including carbon debt and foregone carbon sequestration. Our feedback is that this is a useful tool for making policy decisions, but shouldn't be used at an individual company level, as this confuses consequential and attributional LCA. We are pleased to see that DECC and the UK Govt is applying progressive thinking by looking at future energy supply scenarios. There is also a significant amount of useful data and information in the tool. However there is also a lot of uncertainty and there is a risk the tool could be used out of context by individuals or organisations which do not appreciate the complexities of bioenergy systems or LCA methodology. Overall, DECC have produced a very useful model for the science, policy, and research community, but this tool should be seen as a way to assist decision-making rather than calculating actual emissions from real supply chains.

Official info: DECC hosted a workshop to present their newly developed bioenergy carbon calculator for the assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions associated with different biomass feedstocks. 

Location: Hamilton House in London.
Official website: click here

Synertree Says: A very well organised and attended event, with a very knowledgeable and diverse panel of speakers. I particularly liked the unrestricted and discussion oriented nature of the event, with any member of the audience being able to raise hands and chip in with questions or comments throughout. I was also pleased to see a good mix of attendees, including many businesses as well as the expected student population from UWE. Lots of time for networking, and a lovely buffet was provided after the question time. All in all a great event!

Official info: The intention of this Energy Question Time event is to discuss the future of energy supply and demand and whether solutions can be reached within industry that overcome the hurdles that are faced. This is a collaborative event between the IMechE and CIBSE, the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers. The purpose in organising this collaborative event stems from a growing belief that achievable solutions must consider the entire energy infrastructure; from the building design, occupancy behaviour and efficiency to the supply network.

Location: Glendinning Lecture Threatre (2D67), UWE Frenchay Campus (D Block), 7 pm
Official website: click here

Synertree Says: A very good event - excellent turn out, well planned and executed, people stayed on topic, everyone contributed, and there were a lot of constructive comments. Great talk from Simon Kenton - manager of Oxford's successful "Community Action Groups" (CAG) project, highlighting possible ways in which Bristol and the energy network could achieve some of their aims. Well done to Mark Leach, Jake Barnes, Dave Tudgey and others for organizing the event. Now there's the task of writing a document to incorporate the issues and ideas raised. Exciting stuff!

Official info: A collectively developed Community Energy Strategy for Bristol, driving initiatives that will put Bristol on the map, creating Bristol’s best future and establishing ‘Bristol firsts’ in community energy and energy efficiency; the result of community projects and city-wide partnerships working effectively together.
Following the election of our first mayor George Fergusson and a lively debate at the BEN November open meeting individuals participating in the BEN Google group put together an initial outline version of a strategy here.

Location: Unitarian meeting hall, Brunswick square, 7 - 9 pm
Official website: click here

(Dan) I have just created a LinkedIn page for Synertree! Please follow us here.

Paul and I also have our own Linkedin profiles:
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(Dan) I have signed Synertree on to Twitter!! Please follow us to receive updates on our activities, services, and special offers!
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Synertree says: It was great to see such strong support for what promises to be an excellent scheme to help individuals and small business achieve lower costs for their energy. Mayor George Ferguson was present and voiced his support for the scheme, drumming up support for registrations. Moreover, and as Simon Roberts (CSE) was rightly keen to point out, the scheme will also help to spread the message that there is strength in our communities if we can only come together to achieve a collective goal. This is a fantastic scheme which I believe can deliver some great and valuable outcomes both for Bristol communities and further afield. Sign up now! (Dan Narayanan)

Location: Bristol City Council Building, College Green
Official website: click here

Synertree says: At Rio+20 it was announced that the UK Government will introduce a regulation requiring reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by UK quoted companies. This follows a public consultation last year where the majority supported making GHG emissions reporting mandatory. Defra ran a consultation in summer 2012 on the draft greenhouse gas regulations, as to the format and detail of the GHG reporting legislation. Synertree responded to the consultation based on our experience of GHG and energy reporting in both the UK and Australia. The main points of our response were as follows:

• Synertree welcome the fact the consultation has been published, and congratulate Defra releasing these draft mandatory greenhouse gas reporting regulations.
• Synertree thinks the regulations need further guidance on the level of detail required of the methodology used to calculate emissions. The draft regulations leave this to the discretion of the company.
• Giving Director's a choice of methodologies means that comparison of different companies will be difficult. This goes against two of the main principles of GHG accounting, i.e. 'transparency' and 'comparability'.
• The regulations should make clear that reported emissions should be based on Gross CO2-e, otherwise there is scope for companies which offset emissions to report on their net CO2-e, which has less meaning.
• It would make more sense to have carbon intensity ratio which is comparable within industries/sectors. Allowing companies to choose this means it will be very difficult to make any sort of comparisons.
• The regulations should be based on operational control and Defra should clear define this for reporters.
• It would have much more value and meaning if their was an audit aspect to GHG reporting, otherwise there is a risk of mis-reporting of GHG emissions, either intentionally or unintentionally.
  

The consultation closed on 17 October, subsequently we were invited to a Defra Greenhouse Gas Reporting Regulation Guidance Workshop in London. Here the detail of the legislation and draft regulations were discussed in detail. Revised and updated the regulations will go before Parliament after the Easter recess (26 March to 15 April 2013).

However, the regulations are still expected to come into force for reporting years ending on or after 1 October 2013, which means that for many companies they will already be in their first data collection period. For this reason, it’s important that all affected companies start collecting their data and planning for mandatory carbon reporting now, rather than leaving all the hard work until the last minute.

Official info: Defra hosted a workshop to present the UK's first GHG reporting regulations guidance for listed companies. Following analysis of the consultation responses and engagement with respondents, the draft regulation is being amended and is currently being finalised.

Location: Defra Offices, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London
Official website: Click here

Synertree says: What a fantastic turn out to this event! Tobi Kellner presented information from a Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) study called 'Zero Carbon Britain'. Similar to Professor David MacKay's 'Sustainable Energy Without The Hot Air', and his follow up work on the DECC Pathways project, Tobi spoke about a range of possible scenarios for a suitably sustainable energy supply mix for the UK. Simon Roberts (CSE) very kindly also stepped in last minute to say 'what DECC would have said if they were here and were feeling honest that day'. Once again Simon demonstrated the extent of his knowledge and experience, and alongside Tobi gave us all lots to talk about during the workshops and networking sessions scheduled throughout the day.

Location: Creative Commons Big Top (next to Bristol Temple Meads Station)
Official website: click here.