Our £1m lighting pilot scheme has dramatically reduced the amount of energy used in a group of GP medical centres.
The centres have all slashed their energy demand in their consultation rooms, waiting areas, training and team spaces after replacement of all lighting in their buildings in the national project test.
We designed the pilot project as part of our SixbySix strategy to minimise the impact of our buildings on the environment en route to fully net zero carbon primary care buildings.
One of the key aspects of this is reducing energy consumption and to help achieve this goal, we are working to get every one of our buildings to an EPC rating of band B or higher across the entire portfolio by March 2026 - four years ahead of planned national targets.
We are planning to improve the EPC ratings of at least 50 buildings per year and the pilot project was the first step.
The works were carried out with the help of contractors Quartz Elec and FES Lighting.
LED is currently one of the most efficient lighting technologies, using 25% of the electricity of ordinary light bulbs and lasting up to 25 times longer.
We invested £1.2m in the programme which has reduced energy needs by almost one million kilowatts. Across the 30 medical centres, that’s the equivalent of an estimated £158,950 saved on the practices’ annual energy bills.
Paul Warwick, our Senior Project Manager, said: “We are committed to a net zero carbon portfolio and that starts with making our existing buildings more energy efficient. While we’re designing and innovating to reach net zero on our new-build projects, we’re also making the small but important changes at existing sites like these - ensuring we play our part in a sustainable future and supporting the NHS to meets its goal to be the first net zero carbon health service by 2040.”