It may not seem so, but the autumn and winter seasons are upon us and as the number of day-light hours reduce we look at whether Shopping Centres can reduce their energy consumption by 2.56% per annum for the next 39 years.
We also take a look at what we can all do to reduce waste and why some companies restrict access to the social media world. It’s official, the service to occupiers, by their landlord and property manager, is improving and we take a look the results. What do data centres offer? We take a look.
Finally our Q&A takes a look at virtual security patrols and whether they can would benefit the service charge?
Can we deliver 2.56% reduction each and every year until 2050?
The Energy Savings Trust states that shopping centres contribute 3 million tonnes of CO2 to the UK’s total emissions each year. This is equivalent to the emissions of nearly half a million homes. The Government has set a challenging target of reducing CO2 emissions (50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 from a base measure recorded in 1990) and if shopping centre owners want to meet this level they will have to reduce energy consumption by 2.56% per annum until 2050.
In an attempt to outline how this can be achieved, the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC) has issued a report entitled ‘Accelerating Change towards low carbon Shopping Centres’ with the aim of identifing areas that may accelerate the implementation of energy saving projects. After speaking to a variety of stakeholders a number of elements were identified, where improvements can be made:
A high turnover of staff at grass root level should encourage companies to place the role of energy reduction at Board level.
Retailers are seeking better financial incentives from the Government.
Landlords can play an important part in spreading knowledge of ‘what changes work and what do not’.
In the long-term investment in energy efficiencies must go beyond that which is easy to achieve. We at TAP sense this stage is not too far away.
Communication is often highlighted as a cause for concern in any aspect of property management and all this needs to be improved.
Examples of areas where retail occupiers could achieve savings are numerous but a couple of the lesser known ideas are to reduce the light intensity – 70% of the total intensity before 11am; or look at moving away from the profession norm – large retail units normally have a fit out criteria of 40 watts per m2 and smaller retail units 80 watts per m2 but perhaps look at using high efficiency lighting where it is possible to have 14 watts per m2 in a large retail unit and 40 watts per m2 in a smaller unit.
These are simple wins but the opportunity to take advantage of these situations will become limited as the need to make greater savings takes over. Such projects will need greater occupier collaboration and so communication will inevitably become more important to enable energy to be reduced at the rate the Government wants.
Hardly a Waste of Time, get thinking about your Waste
We all know we should!... and at home our Local Authorities are loading us up with new bins and new pick-up schedules in an effort to get us to focus on how much we are throwing away and where it goes. This also ties in with the current packaging debate about “Sell by’’ dates, “Best before’’ dates and so on, but within your business, who is taking the lead for what we dispose of and where and should we be thinking about this more responsibly?
Unsurprisingly we believe that we should and set out below some areas for your business to consider:
Waste is a huge subject and not only covers the refuse we collect in bags/bins but also Water, Electricity, transport, fuel, office stationary, pollution and time. It can also attract certain tax breaks and financial incentives, so its worth spending a bit of time on.
If you already use Waste Transfer Notes or have a hazardous waste consignment, from 28th September 2011, you will have to have shown that you have applied the Waste Management Hierarchy when choosing a waste option, and essentially this means you must have looked at:
- prevention
- prepared it for re-use
- give consideration for recycling
- give consideration for other uses…. ie as a biofuel or energy recovery
- disposal options
Consider looking at the useful guides and training offered by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme www.wrap.org.uk). Amongst a mass of very useful information they run online training programmes such as The Ripple Effect and ReThink Waste.
Consider contacting the Resource Efficiency Helpline on 0808 100 2040
As ‘easy wins’ in the office you can look at:
- refilling toner and inkjet cartridges
- using waste paper as notepaper
- using durable drinking cups not disposable ones
- reusing envelopes and other packaging
- donating used equipment and furniture to charities, including electrical items (see The Furniture Re-use Network)
- using greywater recycling systems in toilets
- read your meters and monitor usage
- print double sided and re use print paper in fax machines
- try not to over-order raw materials which may never be needed
- when replacing energy and water equipment consider buying items on the Enhanced Capital Allowances and Water Technology Lists for tax benefits
As mentioned this is a huge area and we cannot cover all of it in a Newsletter of this size, but there is plenty of advice out there, but some of those organisations above will definitely be of assistance.
Social Media – Many companies are still unsure about the its security
Company managers remain uncertain about the benefits that social media offers the workplace. Many of these managers also believe viruses, loss of confidential data and the fear that their employees are spending too much time surfing the net also contribute to the idea that restricting access to these services is a safer option.
A survey produced by ClearSwift Research asked 1,529 employees and 906 managers in companies across the world about social media in the office. Interestingly the results were: -
60% of employers worried about potential virus contamination
49% were concerned about loss of confidential information
40% felt viewing these facilities impacted on productivity
37% believed it could have a negative impact on the reputation of the company
This survey also covered the question of technological advancement in the workplace and concluded that companies were still taking a cautious approach to the introduction of new software systems based upon these results.
However the potential exposure to these security risks has resulted in a number of companies either banning access to the social media platforms or monitoring the individual employee’s use of the web. Of those employers questioned 71% had in place a practice policy on the use of the internet, 68% monitored employee internet activity and 56% blocked the use of certain social networking sites. But this last policy does have an impact on the younger generation as only 35% of 18-24 year olds and 44% of 25-35 year olds would remain at their job if their employer banned the use of certain social media websites.
It's official: Occupier satisfaction is getting better – but not by much
The latest Occupier Satisfaction Survey has been released and occupiers have improved their weighted score to 5.4 (where 1 is dissatisfied and 10 is extremely satisfied) on their landlord’s performance, although when considered more closely 10% felt their satisfaction improved, 75% felt their satisfaction remained the same, and 14% rated their satisfaction as worse than the previous year, so has there been any real change? This is the 5th year the survey has been undertaken.
To give you a feeling for the depth of research to achieve these results, the survey was conducted across a broad section of commercial occupiers although only 159 responses were ‘usable’ and were conducted by a Steering Group from the Property Industry Alliance with Corenet Global. The result can be broken down further and as with previous year’s occupiers, the industrial sector remained less satisfied with their landlord than office or retail counterparts. Smaller medium-sized enterprises (those with less than 250 employees) are also less than content than their larger counterparts. However don’t take our word for it click through and have a look at the report.
Areas where improvements were seen as significant are the process for applying for consent, and the process of handing back a property to the landlord. However, aspects that scored low related to service charge arrangements and the landlord’s communication and involvement with the occupier on Environmental matters.
This survey continues to highlight that smaller occupiers still find it difficult to engage with their landlord despite forming the largest “occupier” when you combined the total amount of space they occupy. Much of this is because their access to the right information, (that helps them understand their obligations and commercial requirements), is often priced out of their reach. For tenant satisfaction to greatly improve landlords will have to demonstrate a willingness to find a conduit to ensure that regardless of size, all occupiers receive the right amount of communication.
Off site data storage; the general principles
Companies need to make the best use of their floor space, and many are wondering why they are spending prime city centre rents on technical areas that could easily be housed off-site in secure, managed locations.
The data centre market is big business, and growing and can present opportunities for owners of vacant buildings with the prospect of relatively secure long term income streams (many with fixed increases) and the security and cost effectiveness that many business require for their data.
Essentially a data centre’s function is to provide uninterrupted, resilient services with the necessary cooling and ventilation that the systems best perform within. Additional services will include security, repair, common part maintenance and back-up against service interruption and it is usually these features that represent the components of a separate services agreement which is best linked to the ‘lease’ so that the termination of one can include the other. This ability for the tenant to terminate in the event that the services are unacceptable or breached is an important detail. Furthermore, a tenant can expect to have their non-interruption backed up by service credits, liquidated sums which can be credited against rent or service fees. These features are key to the agreements and tend to illustrate where differences lie between tradition occupational leases, which tend to focus on alienation and repair obligations.
In such a model the actual lease rent can be as low as 10% of the total agreement, the balance representing the receipt of services. Such a low rent percentage also has the benefit of minimising Stamp Duty Land Tax applicable to the rental consideration. Electricity tends to be charged separately, as are any other services requested.
Difficulties can arise when the centre needs to undertake repair or upgrade works and these need to be handled very carefully between the parties, bearing in mind the sensitivity of the ‘business critical data’ that is stored there. Back up plans should be drawn up to deal with this and should accommodate sensitive timing to minimise impact. Care should also be taken when dealing with a departing ‘customer’ as many tend to leave the equipment behind which causes uncertainty for the data centre manager who will be unsure if it can be re-used or not. Document drafting should cover this from the outset. This can depend upon whether or not the customer has actually entered a collocation licence and had leased racking space or installed their own.
The immediate future sees increasing use of internet based back- up via Cloud based services which, once one is confident about data security issues, can allow for much greater employee participation and behavioural change, plus the usual benefit of reducing floor space usage for data equipment. You can anticipate data centre operators to be looking at using Cloud technology to meet this growing trend.
For further guidance on this area, TAP can direct you to industry experts.
Security Patrols – Can they be undertaken remotely?
If you work on an industrial estate or retail park, security of the common parts is often provided through regular manned patrols which are scheduled outside of the normal operating times of the estate or park. In the current climate many managing agents are looking at ways of reducing the cost and one way maybe to replace these with a virtual patrol.
Virtual patrols operate through utilising a CCTV system that is linked via a wireless or broadband internet connection to a manned monitoring station where the cameras are regularly monitored. Typically a manned patrol can cost between £50 -£100 per patrol however there is a huge benefit as a security guard is capable of judging a situation and responding immediately to a potential issue, whereas a virtual patrol may cost as little as £3 - £6 per review.
A virtual patrol operates on the basis that the camera monitoring company can sweep the property using the images provided by the cameras at set and agreed times of the day. The cameras can also be set up to provide alert alarms that would highlight a potential situation and bring an issue to the attention of the monitoring company. With the images being provided through the internet, this allows the property manager to also view the site from any computer which aides the management of the property.
Using a virtual patrol can reduce the traditional routine, out of hour inspection cost, but there is an up front installation cost and broadband/wireless connectivity. Depending on the number of cameras a property manager may be looking at a capital expenditure amount above £10,000. This level of cost does depend on the number of cameras required to properly monitor the property. The return on capitalfor such a project will depend on the number of years savings you apply to the project but based on 2 routine out of hours manned patrols per weekend at £60 per visit would result in an annual saving of £6,240.
As technology improves there will always be opportunities to offer a service in a different and potentially cheaper way so it is worth looking at what new innovations are out there.
