The Amber Green Consortium, led by Amber Infrastructure Limited (Amber), the leading sponsor and manager of social and economic infrastructure projects, has been appointed to manage the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF) on behalf of the Mayor’s London Green Fund (LGF).
Working with consortium members Arup (as technical advisor) and RBS (as funder), LEEF will invest up to £100 million in energy efficient projects, which are aimed at helping London’s public sector reduce its carbon emissions: this currently amounts to four million tonnes per year, or 10% of the capital’s overall carbon footprint.
The LGF was established by the European Investment Bank (EIB) on behalf of the London Development Agency and the London Waste and Recycling Board. LEEF is the second Urban Development Fund established by the LGF for London and forms an integral part of the Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s vision to radically reduce the capital’s carbon emissions by 2020.
The consortium will use its combined expertise to target and invest the fund in a range of public sector building projects in the capital which are being upgraded with energy efficient retrofit measures, including boiler replacements, ventilation upgrades, building fabric improvements, and efficient lighting, as well as innovations such as controls and smart meters.
The scale of the energy efficiency retrofit market in public sector buildings is significant in the UK, with London alone totalling £5.6 billion. Buildings in the UK have the potential to save up to 50% of their energy use and reducing carbon emissions from public sector buildings could lead to a financial benefit of £4.5 billion by 2020. The initiative forms part of the European Union’s Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) initiative, which tackles the public sector’s limited access to capital by using private sector expertise and funding to achieve key urban development goals and long-term savings.
