Through this programme the Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Energy and Climate Change, working together, are stimulating technology innovation by supporting a range of potential innovative solutions to the energy usage and carbon emission challenges faced by government offices. The performance of the solutions will be monitored and may then be adopted by other government offices, and by privately-managed office buildings.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) will install nine technologies between them.

Climate change minister Greg Barker said today:

“Government cannot ask people to reduce their emissions without cutting our own emissions. People can now see for themselves that we are doing just that. But I want to go further and start building the low carbon office of the future right here in DECC. That is why DECC and three other departments are working with the Technology Strategy Board to trial several ground breaking technologies on our estate.”

The Energy Efficient Whitehall programme will see the Technology Strategy Board and DECC jointly invest £2 million in the nine pilot projects, which range from phase- change ceiling tiles to address local overheating in meeting rooms, to a natural cooling system that will be demonstrated over a couple of floors. Other solutions harness user engagement and behaviour changes, and another tackles reducing desktop power consumption.

Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said:

“Through this investment, we are supporting and stimulating innovations that help to address the key challenges of reducing energy usage and cutting carbon emissions. At the same time, we are helping to deliver long-term economic growth for the UK by creating the opportunity for innovative British companies to take advantage of the growing worldwide demand for energy efficient technology.”

The programme is being run under the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), a pioneering programme championed by the Technology Strategy Board where government departments offer innovative businesses contracts for the development of technology-based solutions to public sector challenges. Project implementation will begin immediately and installation must be completed by March 2011. Monitoring will then be undertaken for 12 months to determine actual reductions in energy use and carbon emissions, and the results will be published at the end of March 2012.

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