Pembrokeshire College is one of the first organisations in west Wales to display an energy certificate in their reception areas, showing the actual energy usage of their buildings.
The Display Energy Certificate is part of European legislation - the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive - that came into effect on October 1 and is part of a series of measures being introduced across Europe to help cut buildings' carbon emissions and tackle climate change.
From this month, all public buildings - such as town halls, libraries, schools and hospitals (greater than 1000m2) will be required by law to display an energy certificate (DEC) in their reception areas, showing the actual energy usage of the building. Similarly, all homes, commercial and public buildings - when bought, sold, built or let - will need an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).
"Bullock Consulting Ltd. issued the certificate to the college. They also have the necessary professional qualifications, knowledge and experience to provide practical recommendations to continuously make improvements in our energy efficiency," said the college director of estates and facilities, Steve Jones.
"The Display Energy Certificate looks similar to energy certificates that are displayed on new electrical appliances with an easy to understand 'A' to 'G' rating, with 'A' being the most energy efficient and 'G' being the least.
"The college gained a 'C' rating, which is very good considering that the main buildings are 17 years old and the average benchmark is likely to be between a 'D' and 'E' rating.
"When the £30m master plan for remodelling the college comes to fruition, the college will expect to gain a higher rating. Our last two building projects - the £3.2m Innovation Centre (2002) and the £3.1m Construction Technology Centre (2007) - were designed and built to very high environmental and energy efficient specifications.
"In fact, the Construction Technology Centre was the first further education development in England and Wales to be given an excellent BREEAM rating and was named best building in the Welsh Bespoke BREEAM awards earlier this year.
"Given that the UK's buildings are responsible for almost 50 per cent of the UK's energy consumption and carbon emissions, we take the responsibility of reducing both emissions and consumption very seriously."
Paul Bullock from Bullock Consulting Ltd said: "The new certificate will show the operational rating, relating to the actual energy consumption of the building, over the previous year. It will also include a benchmark value to which it can be compared which will be a measure of how well the building is being used in practice.
"The certificates must be displayed in a prominent position within the building and updated annually and this will put pressure on public organisations to improve their environmental performance."
For further information about Bullock Consulting Ltd ,go to http://www.bullockconsulting.co.uk">www.bullockconsulting.co.uk; for plans about Pembrokeshire College, view the pages on http://www.pembrokeshire.ac.uk/plan">www.pembrokeshire.ac.uk/plan