Until recently, European customers planning to purchase or lease warehouse space did not have any tool available to assess the energy quality of warehouse buildings. However, by 2006, most EU member states had implemented the European Energy Performance for Buildings Directive (EPBD), which mandates energy efficiency assessments for residential, commercial, and public buildings in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Today, supply chain management professionals across Europe already recognize eco-friendly (“green”) warehouses as “best practice” in their industry.
The EPBD directive established minimum compliance standards for energy consumption for all buildings. These standards vary depending on the type of building as well as the country. Furthermore, the EPBD directive developed a common methodology for calculating the integrated energy performance of existing and new buildings. Based on these calculations, each building receives an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), which compares the building’s energy efficiency against the minimum requirements of an established baseline level.
In the future, companies operating in the European market will use EPCs in the process of selecting buildings with the best energy performance, as well as in managing their carbon emissions. These are two concrete measures by which European enterprises can fulfill their obligations to the EU resulting from the provisions of the EPBD directive and the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, the ecological properties of buildings can contribute to significant savings, even as much as £230,000 – £335,000 per year (data from the UK).