Project rolledout for district energy and street lighting
© Skitterphoto

Project rolled-out for district energy and street lighting

A project aimed at standardising how building projects are measured and developed to accelerate investment opportunities has received funding under the Horizon 2020 Programme.

The funding will be used to expand the standard to district energy and street lighting in Europe.

The Investor Confidence Project (ICP) Europe has expanded its Investor Ready Energy Efficiency (IREE) certification for energy-efficiency projects across industry, street lighting and district energy applications. Previously only available to the building sector, the ICP aims to promote best practice for projects to make them more attractive and easily measurable for the investor community.

The Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), sister organisation of the US Green Building Council, partnered with the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF) to deliver the ICP in 2011, before bringing the concept to Europe in 2015.

ICP has already trialled successful projects in Europe, such as the Liverpool NHS, and seeks to boost investor confidence on the financial and environmental performance of projects.

“Since 2015, with the support of the European Commission, ICP has made great progress in introducing standardisation to building energy efficiency projects in Europe,” ICP Europe’s senior advisor Steve Fawkes said.

“With additional support from the European Commission we look forward to extending the principles of ICP into industrial, street lighting and district energy projects.”

The expansion of the ICP will be handled by the project’s European consortium, which includes companies involved in efficiency projects and standards such as UK furniture company Verco, the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmarks (GRESB) and the ESG benchmark for real assets.

These organisations will act as the communication between the project and the European investment market. The consortium will attempt to develop new protocols for additional sectors, using best practice examples to mobilise interest.