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VOLDEC HELP MANUAL

Version v2

July 2017

Developed by:

National Energy Foundation:

Malcolm Hanna

National Energy Foundation

Davy Avenue

Knowlhill

Milton Keynes MK5 8NG

T: 01908 256924

malcolm.hanna@nef.org.uk

Building Energy Solutions:

Phil Jones

Building Energy Solutions

42 Santley Street

London

SW4 7QD

07714 203 045

philjones100@virginmedia.com

CO N TENTS

1. WHAT ARE VOLDEC’s? .................................................................................................. 3

1.1 Our VolDEC approach ............................................................................................. 3

1.2 VolDEC methodology............................................................................................... 3

1.3 The VolDEC story so far .......................................................................................... 4

1.4 Partnership project.................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

2. WHY VOLDECs ............................................................................................................... 4

2.1 The need for VolDECs ............................................................................................. 4

2.2 The challenge .......................................................................................................... 4

2.3 Display Energy Certificates ...................................................................................... 5

2.4 Our Aims.................................................................................................................. 5

3. BENEFITS OF VOLDECS................................................................................................ 5

4. BUILDING SECTORS...................................................................................................... 6

4.1 Sector-specific ......................................................................................................... 7

5. THE VOLDEC METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 7

6. DATA REQUIREMENTS.................................................................................................. 8

7. LANDLORD TENANT VOLDECS..................................................................................... 9

8. VERIFICATION & AUDITING......................................................................................... 14

9. DATA QUALITY ............................................................................................................. 14

10. TERMS & CONDITIONS ........................................................................................... 15

11. SUCCESS STORIES................................................................................................. 17

12. ABOUT US ................................................................................................................ 17

13. CONTACT US ........................................................................................................... 19

Version Control

VERSION

DATE

ISSUED BY

CHECKED BY

Version v1

10.7.17

Phil Jones

Malcolm Hannah

Version v2

12.7.17

Phil Jones

Malcolm Hannah

2 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

VOLDEC HELP MANUAL

1. WHAT ARE VOLDEC’S?

VolDECs (Voluntary Display Energy Certificates) are a new and innovative voluntary

operational energy performance rating scheme for non-domestic buildings. Initially designed

for commercial office buildings these are now being developed for other sectors. This is a not-

for-profit scheme and the ratings are based on relatively simple data, making them

inexpensive and quick to produce.

VolDECs have been developed as commercial office buildings don’t have an appropriate

means of measuring and highlighting energy performance in a relatively simple and consistent

way. In particular, there are issues associated with the landlord and tenant energy split and

the lack of relevant benchmarks to enable performance to be measured and compared

sensibly and consistently.

1.1 Our VolDEC approach

Our new approach separates tenant energy use from that of the landlord and the common

parts of the building (with the data being displayed either individually or on the same

certificate). This provides property owners and operators with cost-effective, user-friendly

energy ratings for areas of a building that they control or manage, and are able to improve.

Whole Building (Landlord only) VolDEC Landlord-Tenant VolDEC

1.2 VolDEC methodology

Based on mandatory Display Energy Certificate (DEC) methodology and making use of

relatively simple data, the scheme allows energy managers to easily and inexpensively

3 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

identify the energy performance of their building(s) relative to other buildings they operate or

others in the same sector. VolDECs also use more granular benchmarks than statutory DECs

to give a more robust rating for performance.

1.3 The VolDEC story so far

The VolDEC story so far has been summarised in a paper and presentation ‘The

Development of a Voluntary DEC Rating Scheme’ that the team presented at the CIBSE

Technical Symposium in 2015. This began with a whole building certificate and then

expanded to provide a Landlord –Tenant split assessment.

Since then, VolDECs have been further developed to:

• Provide an environmental certificate covering waste and water

• Added a wide range of benchmarks for different building types

• Provide a certificate for the Landlord performance in shopping centres and car parks

• A new platform to allow client input online

• Expansion of VolDEC to now include most main non-domestic building types

• Automatic checks on the input data to provide WARNINGS to the client where data

may be poor quality

Our not-for-profit VolDEC scheme has been developed by a working partnership between the

National Energy Foundation and Phil Jones of Building Energy Solutions.

2. WHY VOLDECS

2.1 The need for VolDECs

There’s a growing need across all sectors for those responsible for buildings to monitor and

manage their energy use better – whether it’s driven by the commercial bottom line, the ‘push’

of government legislation and initiatives, the desire to combat climate change, or the comfort

and productivity of occupants.

Evaluating a building’s energy performance enables you to manage energy use better and to

identify and prioritise opportunities for energy-related improvements – whether they’re capital

investment, occupant education or building modifications.

2.2 The challenge

It can often be a challenge to understand how much energy a building is using. However, the

old adage: “If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it” applies – but many people

responsible for buildings often don’t know what to measure, how to measure it, how often it

should be measured or how to interpret the data.

The first stage of a prioritised energy efficiency plan is to assemble some simple key data and

information. The aim of VolDECs is to use this information to compare the performance of a

building, or buildings either across a portfolio, or against published UK benchmarks for the

same type. VolDECs also track the performance of a building against itself over the last three

years.

Comparing buildings with each other and also with others of a similar design or use is another

benefit of VolDECs; and energy managers are able to identify potential opportunities for

energy efficiency improvement and to prioritise further, more detailed investigations.

4 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

2.3 Display Energy Certificates

In 2010 the Government decided not to mandate Display Energy Certificates (DECs) in

commercial buildings. VolDECs address this shortcoming by offering a voluntary scheme

that’s free from Government constraints and will hopefully gain the full backing of the industry.

The scheme recognises the potential for:

• Gaining a deeper analysis and a better understanding of building energy performance

• Improving benchmarking standards that will benefit the whole sector

Statutory DECs provide a good starting point, but they have their shortcomings. Our VolDEC

methodology aims to address these shortcomings, including the lack of flexibility in available

benchmarks and the inability to split out performance. VolDECs also address issues that

many buildings are stuck at a G rating with no clear direction on how to improve performance.

2.4 Our Aims

Our aims with VolDECs are to:

 Establish a consistent methodology and quality assurance across the industry

 Provide a voluntary scheme without government constraints

 Provide a not-for-profit solution, for the benefit of the industry, backed by the industry

 Use authoritative sector-specific benchmarks

 Highlight performance, encourage action and improvement

 Conduct benchmarking research for the industry

 Soft start the commercial sector into measuring performance

 Encourage deeper analysis to benefit building operators, designers and the whole

industry

3. BENEFITS OF VOLDECS

VolDECs provide you with a number of benefits:

Various external and internal pressures mean that, for most organisations across all sectors,

energy performance evaluation is fast-becoming unavoidably essential. Some see it as a

burden but the more enlightened view is that it provides benefits for all their stakeholders –

from shareholders to employees to customers and occupants.

The benefits of VolDECs are that they:

• Highlight energy performance and provide a clear driver for improving

performance

• Are a stand-alone entry level engagement tool – based on relatively simple data,

making them easy to produce and inexpensive

• Establish a consistent methodology and quality level across the industry

• Provide landlords and tenants with comparative energy performance of the areas

that they control

• Offer a starting point for tenant engagement

• Use robust DEC methods but with more appropriate benchmarks and an extended

scale for greater performance differentiation

• Have been piloted in various multi-tenanted offices, and are now being developed

for other sectors and building owners/operators

5 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

• Help to highlight data and performance anomalies and the need for more detailed

investigations

VolDECs are “by the industry, for the industry”

Whilst complex buildings will need external expertise, VolDECs provide a useful, cost-effective

and relatively easy starting point, and one that can be built into a more sophisticated approach

as and when skills and confidence grow.

Our aim with VolDECs is to create a USEFUL tool by the industry, for the industry.

4. BUILDING SECTORS

The sectors where VolDECs can be used

VolDECs were initially designed for commercial office buildings but the VolDEC methodology

can be adapted and one of our aims is to use them to benefit the management of other types

of buildings. As a result we have expanded the use of VolDECs to cover all of the main non-

domestic building types including;

• Shopping centres

• Restaurants

• Shops

• Leisure facilities

• Hotels

• Warehouses

and many others.

If you’re involved in a specific sector and would like to discuss applying VolDECs to your

buildings, please contact us.

6 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

4.1 Sector-specific

We can make VolDEC certificates sector-specific to highlight aspects that are particular to

either building types or sector practices. We can also work with sector associations to tailor

and badge VolDECs in order to gain support across a sector.

Alternative benchmarking

Where the data is available, VolDECs can be based on sector-specific benchmarks such as

kWh/meal in restaurants and kWh/bedroom in hotels. This provides an alternative

performance rating that can sometimes indicate where problems lie in particular buildings.

Portfolio benchmarking

We can produce VolDECs based on benchmarks from a single large portfolio (a hotel chain,

for example) to allow a comparison with a client’s own stock of buildings, and these would be

badged as client-specific VolDECs. This allows a more specific comparison to rate

performance against organisational benchmarks, providing an even greater like-for-like

comparison.

5. THE VOLDEC METHODOLOGY

VolDECs use the same methodology as statutory Display Energy Certificates (DECs) and

provide a similar certificate layout with an A-G scale, but that’s where the similarity ends.

VolDECs take all the good features of statutory DECs and make them better, easier and more

informative while also allowing tailoring for each sector and individual client requirements.

Better benchmarking

VolDECs use ECON19 benchmarks for offices while statutory DECs use a single CIBSE

TM46 benchmark. This has the advantage of providing multiple benchmarks dependent on the

building type instead of just a ‘one shoe fits all’ approach. Using a similar approach, VolDECs

will be developed for other sectors.

Enhanced rating scale

The traditional A-G rating scale used in statutory DECs has been extended to include G1 to

G4 ratings. This has the advantage of providing low-ranking buildings with a more defined

rating in order to encourage improvement. VolDECs also include a U (Unclassified) rating for

buildings where performance or data is exceptionally poor.

Improved data quality

Uniquely, VolDECs include a certificate quality rating: HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW, to

encourage improvements in data quality. In some cases this encourages clients to go back

and assess their data rather than simply trust a less robust rating. See later.

7 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

Office Landlord/tenant split

By separating out the tenant energy outputs from those produced by the common parts of an

office building, property owners/operators are provided with cost-effective, user-friendly

energy ratings for just those areas of an asset that are within their control to improve.

Statutory DEC

VolDEC

Methodology

Produced using the

methodology described

in CIBSE TM47

Produced using the

methodology described

in CIBSE TM47

Benchmarks

Uses CIBSE

TM46 benchmarks.

This provides only one

benchmark for all office

types

Uses ECON19 benchmarks

for offices. This provides

four different office types

and energy is broken down

by end use for each type

Rating scale

A-G rating scale

Uses G1-G4 and U ratings,

thereby providing more

granular information for

poor performing buildings

Data quality

No specific data quality

checks

Uses a High/Medium/Low

certificate data quality

rating

Landlord/tenant

split

Unable to provide a

separate

landlord/tenant DEC in

the same building

Uses the granular energy

breakdown in ECON19 to

provide composite landlord

and tenant benchmarks for

seven different building

scenarios

6. DATA REQUIREMENTS

In order to produce a whole building VolDEC certificate for a particular building, you’ll need to

provide us with:

• Building address and postcode

• Building type

• Floor area

• Energy data by fuel type

• Energy data by user (landlord or tenant)

• Data year/reporting period

• Approximate hours the building is occupied

VolDECs for office buildings

Step 1 – Select your building type

Select which of the four office types matches your building:

8 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

7. LANDLORD TENANT VOLDECS

Step 2 – Select your building scenario

If your building is an office, for which you’d like to develop separate landlord and tenant

VolDECs, we also need to know which one of the seven building scenarios below applies.

Please select the nearest match from below:

S1 – Naturally ventilated, all Landlord

• Landlord central gas boiler (Space Heating & 100% DHW)

• Landlord 100% Electric DHW & catering

• Central restaurant included in S1

9 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

S2 – Air Conditioned, Tenant Split Units

• Tenant Local split units (Heating & cooling)

• Tenant 90% Electric DHW & catering

• No central restaurant in S2

• No central boiler in S2

• Space heating & DHW based on adjusted gas benchmark

S2a – Air Conditioned, Tenant Split Units, Tempered air

• Tenant Local split units (Heating & cooling)

• Tenant 90% Electric DHW & catering

• No central restaurant in S2

• No central boiler in S2

• Central AHU supplying background tempered air

• Space heating based on adjusted gas benchmark

10 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

S3 – Air Conditioned, Tenant cooling

• Landlord central gas boiler (Space Heating & 50% DHW)

• Tenant Local Air Conditioning (Cooling Only)

• Tenant 90% Electric DHW & catering

• No central restaurant in S3

S3a – Air Conditioned, Tenant cooling & Tempered Air

• Landlord central gas boiler (Space Heating & 50% DHW)

• Tenant Local Air Conditioning (Cooling Only)

• Central AHU provides background tempered air

• Tenant 90% Electric catering

• Tenant 50% DHW as electric

• No central restaurant in S3

S4 – Air Conditioned, Tenant FCU’s

• Landlord central gas boiler (Space Heating & 50% DHW)

• Landlord central chiller & central fans

• Tenant FCU’s

• Tenant 50% Electric DHW & catering

• Central restaurant included in S4

S5 – Air Conditioned, all landlord

• Landlord central gas boiler (Space Heating & 100% DHW)

11 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

• Landlord central chiller

• Landlord FCU’s

• Landlord 100% Electric DHW & catering

• Central restaurant included in S5

Step 3 – Begin inputting data on the platform or complete our simple data collection sheet

which is available on request.

8. OFFICE ASSUMPTIONS

 Based on ‘Typical’ ECON 19 benchmarks (not good practice)

 ECON 19 benchmarks converted to Gross floor area using Guide F factors for each

building type

 Gas DHW is 20kWh/m2 of total gas where there is a restaurant S5, S4, S1 (Landlord)

 Gas DHW is 10kWh/m2 of total gas where there is no central restaurant S3, S2

 Electric DHW & Catering is 100% Landlord in S5 & S1, 50% in S4 and 10% in S3 & S2

 S2A & S3A have a central AHU providing tempered air

9. FLOOR AREA

In general, the benchmarks used in VOLDEC are based on Gross Internal Floor Area (GIFA)

i.e. internal wall to internal wall including everything. However, there are alternative metrics in

some sectors:

12 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

• Net Lettable Area (NLA) in offices and shopping centres

• Car Park Spaces in car parks

• Sales Floor Area in retail buildings

The VolDEC platform can convert input data between these metrics.

10. SEPARABLES

The separables (special end-uses) allowed in VolDEC are:

S1 Regional server room

S2 Trading floor

S3 Bakery oven

S4 Sports flood lighting

S5 Furnace, heat treatment or forming process

S6 Blast chilling or freezing

S7 Cinema complex

S8 Large Gym

S9 Large process equipment

S10 swimming pool

S11 Very large medical equipment

11. RENEWABLES

The low carbon & renewable technologies allowed in VolDEC are:

Renewable Heat

• GSHP Heat

• ASHP Heat

• WSHP Heat

• Biomass Boiler Heat

• Solar Water Heat

• Biogas Boiler Heat

Renewable electricity

• Solar PV Electricity

• Wind Turbine Electricity

• Hydro Electricity

• Anaerobic digestion CHP Electricity

LZC Technologies

• CHP

13 ©National Energy Foundation & Building Energy Solutions

• CCHP

• District Heating

• District Cooling

12. VERIFICATION & AUDITING

The VolDEC platform automatically carries out a series of data quality checks and provides

WARNINGS to the user where data falls outside certain parameters. This approach provides

an element of data verification and data cleansing by the user themselves. We also undertake

data verification checks to ensure the database is the highest possible quality. This is a key

issue as much of the data around building performance is relatively poor quality

Although there are no site audit requirements for VolDECs but the scheme itself is subject to

periodic audits.

Two levels of audit:

1. Standard checks on all VolDECs to identify spurious data leading to unexpected results.

In particular, we look at the landlord-to-tenant rating ratio, in order to spot any wide disparities,

which might imply either poor data or a poor choice of scenario

2. A small number of site visits across each larger portfolio ~ 5%. These might take the form

of follow up visits by the client’s representative

Full site audits - We also reserve the right to conduct a full site audit on a small proportion of

scheme participants in order to ensure the on-going robustness of the scheme.

13. DATA QUALITY

Certificate ratings

The VolDEC certificate includes a quality rating as part of our immediate feedback and

auditing:

• HIGH. Well categorised, good energy data, good floor area data (for display)

• MEDIUM. Concerns about categorisation, energy or floor area data (for display –

prompting improved data)

• LOW. Missing/poor categorisation, energy or floor area data (issue to Facilities

Manager – not for display)

As the user enters data the platform automatically carries out a series of data quality checks

and provides WARNINGS to the user where data falls outside certain parameters. These data

WARNINGS are then collected into a ‘Data Quality’ TAB in the platform showing a list of all of

the data queries (warnings). The platform includes a summary of the number of warnings and

the overall quality rating based on:

• HIGH = Zero WARNINGS

• MEDIUM = UP TO 2 WARNINGS OR ONE HIGH WARNING

• POOR = MORE THAN 2 WARNINGS OR ONE HIGH WARNING

The user can then ‘resolve’ a warning by adding some justification text as to why this is

acceptable data rather than erroneous. This text will form part of our VolDEC auditing process

and we reserve the right to question false information and justification.

But the basic idea is that the platform identifies possible poor data, the user then questions

that and perhaps seeks better data or provides a justification for the Warning. This will be an

iterative data cleansing approach in order to make the VolDEC performance rating more

robust.

14. TERMS & CONDITIONS

Our Terms & Conditions for providing VolDECs

The VolDEC website is maintained by the National Energy Foundation (NEF) and Building

Energy Solutions (BES). Use of the website, including any data calculations, is subject to

these terms and conditions. Copyright within the text, photos, other images and methodology

lies with either NEF or BES or is used under licence from third parties. For the purposes of the

Data Protection Act, the Data Controller is the National Energy Foundation, which is

registered under the Act no. Z7345445.

Should you wish to obtain a VolDEC (which may consist of data processing or other services

and the issuing of a certificate or other reports) from NEF and BES, which are collectively

referred to as “we” or “us” below, then the following additional terms and conditions will apply.

1. Data provided to us from you is regarded as being your sole responsibility, and we cannot

be held responsible for any errors or omissions within it. Although we may undertake

standard verification checks on all VolDECs, and may undertake additional verification and

auditing checks on a sample of data submitted to us, these are designed to give us internal

assurance as to the likely veracity of data, and we cannot guarantee identifying any

inaccuracies or inconsistencies, and have no obligation to report to you any data that we

consider to be potentially in error.

2. (a) Source data provided by you remains your property. However by entering data into our

system (whether electronic or on paper forms) you are giving us an unrestricted right to

process and report upon that data, save that in the case of reported data we shall not

identify the property to which that data relates without your explicit consent other than

through the production of a VolDEC certificate and report, which we will deliver to you or to

your nominated agent.

(b) Calculated data from VolDECs belongs to us, although we give you an unrestricted right

to report and act upon such calculated data. Furthermore, we are, under these terms,

permitted to report publicly aggregated data about energy, waste or water use or energy

generation by building type and or market sector (including sub-divisions such as age or

geographical location) for purposes including (but not restricted to) research and the

development of better benchmarks, subject to our taking reasonable steps to prevent users of

such aggregated data being able to construe information about a specific building or buildings

owned by you.

we may assume that the VolDEC results (including report and certificate) may be made

available to all landlords and tenants relating to that building unless you give use specific

instructions not to do so, or naming only those parties associated with that building who may

be permitted to see the results. We may also presume that contracted facilities managers and

letting/sales agents may be informed about VolDEC results unless you specifically require us

not to do so.

(d) VolDEC reports are issued with a specific period of validity. You agree not to continue to

refer to a VolDEC rating on a building as being current beyond the stated period of validity.

You may continue to refer to it as a historical rating, and act upon any recommendations for

energy performance improvement actions beyond that date.

(e) Energy consumption data varies with many factors including the level of activity inside a

building, external weather conditions, employee or occupant behaviour, and any changes

made to the building or its services during the period of data collection. The VolDEC rating is

based on historical data for a defined period, so cannot be guaranteed to be representative of

energy use in that building or as an indicator of future energy consumption.

(f) We will audit 5% of the VolDECs generated through the online VolDEC portal, in order to

ensure that data input to the system is accurate. This audit may require you, the user of the

VolDEC portal, to provide us with additional data or supporting evidence. This might also

involve us carrying out a site visit to any building recorded on the VolDEC online system. By

agreeing to these terms and conditions you agree to take part, cooperate with and support us

in the execution of any such audits that involve you. Should an audit indicate incorrect inputs

or use of the VolDEC platform then NEF/BES will work with the organisation to resolve any

issues and re-issue the certificate with a normal certificate cost to the client. NEF/BES reserve

the right to block organisations that continue to submit poor data or misuse the VolDEC

platform. Any appeal will be referred to an independent energy expert at a joint cost to the

client.”

3. We will not sell data relating to your properties to third parties for the purpose of marketing

energy performance improvement actions without your explicit consent. We may sell

aggregated data (as in condition 2 above) to interested parties, including government

agencies, but with the same proviso that we shall use reasonable endeavours to prevent

data relating to your individual properties being identifiable, without your explicit consent.

4. Any actions taken by you following the completion of a VolDEC, including (but not restricted

to) your undertaking any recommendations for energy performance improvement actions,

are undertaken by you at your own risk and we cannot be held liable for the failure of such

actions to achieve anticipated (or any) energy savings, or for any consequential losses as a

result of such actions, howsoever caused.

5. The detailed VolDEC methodology and processes are owned by us, and you agree not to

seek to reverse engineer them or to otherwise produce VolDEC outputs without using our

systems or services. If, during the conduct of a VolDEC process, you identify potential

improvements to the methodology, system or service, then you may offer it to us as an

improvement and we may, at our absolute discretion, decide whether to seek to create a

similar improvement through our own efforts or to negotiate with you for incorporation of

your specific improvement into our system.

6. We agree to provide the certificate providing payment has been agreed in accordance with

our terms of business and reserve the right to withhold provision of VolDEC results until

such time as we have been paid. Where certificates need to be subsequently revised or

updated due to either incorrect or poor quality source data provided by you, extra charges

may need to be applied.

7. These terms and conditions form the basis of the legal agreement between you and us for

the provision of VolDEC services, including the production of any certificates or reports as

may be agreed. They are applicable to the extent that they may be applied; if any terms

become illegal or unable to be delivered, the remaining terms shall stay in force and be

construed in the light of the changed circumstances. If necessary, they shall be interpreted

according to English law and subject to the jurisdiction of English courts.

8. NEF, BES and the software developers (Carbon Descent) accept no liability for the use of

the VolDEC online tool and benchmarks both of which are to be used entirely at the user's

risk. The VolDEC tool should not be used for any application with potential liabilities unless

the user has first established to their own satisfaction the tool's functionality and

appropriateness."

15. SUCCESS STORIES

Legal & General Property has been involved with VolDECs from the very beginning and has

pioneered the piloting of the VolDEC concept on a number of offices in its estate.

“We believe that VolDECs are a great first step in engaging managing agents and tenants to

improve energy performance. At a lower cost than a statutory DEC, we feel that it is truly cost

effective to roll out across large fund portfolios and will allow us not only to determine the

annual operational rating of our assets in order to ensure that our supply chain is managing

them effectively but most importantly to act if any exceptions show up. In time we hope to

extend the scheme to cover other environmental aspects.”

Debbie Hobbs, Head of Sustainability, Legal & General Property

16. ABOUT US

Voluntary Display Energy Certificates (VolDECs) have been developed by a partnership

between the National Energy Foundation and Phil Jones of Building Energy Solutions. Our

not-for-profit scheme was initially funded by Legal & General Property and was successfully

tested on 16 of its major, multi-tenanted office properties.

The National Energy Foundation is an independent, national charity based in Milton

Keynes, which has been at the forefront of improving the use of energy in buildings since

1988. It aims to give people, organisations and government the knowledge, support and

inspiration they need to understand and improve the use of energy in buildings.

Building Energy Solutions is an independent energy consultancy with a track record of over

25 years specialising in addressing energy problems in the built environment. BES provides

training, research and building/technology troubleshooting across the non-domestic building

sector.

Malcolm Hanna- Technical Director, National Energy Foundation

“VolDECs’ separate landlord and tenant ratings provide a unique approach in dealing with

what was an intractable energy problem and they help people to understand what they can

control and improve.”

Malcolm is a carbon and energy management professional with over twenty years’ experience

in energy and sustainability across various sectors. He leads the National Energy

Foundation’s Technical Team and has broad experience of the opportunities and barriers

associated with managing energy across complex organisations and projects. He has

particular expertise in developing low-carbon solutions for existing building portfolios and has

substantial experience of energy-efficient design, procurement and operations. Malcolm

previously spent seven years as Regional Director with AECOM, building the energy and

carbon management team. During this period, he helped the Carbon Trust pilot its carbon

management programme and developed more than 30 organisational carbon management

programmes. Malcolm is also an Evaluator for the Technology Strategy Board’s Building

Performance Evaluation Programme and an ESOS Lead Assessor under the Energy

Managers Association register.

Phil Jones - Senior Energy Consultant, Building Energy Solutions

“VolDECs are a real step-change for commercial buildings that currently don’t use DECs and

will help engage people in dealing with the energy performance gap.”

Phil Jones is an independent energy consultant with over 30 years’ experience in the built

environment sector. He has spent his career trying to make buildings more energy-efficient

and investigating failing buildings. For the last 25 years he has run the independent energy

consultancy Building Energy Solutions where he carries out building energy research and

training across a wide range of buildings and technologies. Phil is the original author of CIBSE

Guide F – Energy Efficiency in Buildings. He also wrote CIBSE TM31 on Building Log Books

and CIBSE TM39 on Building Energy Metering. Phil is a leading specialist on energy

benchmarking of buildings, he chairs the CIBSE Energy Performance Group and is a member

of the CIBSE Benchmarks Steering Group. In 2010, he was involved with UCL in analysing

the DEC database for CIBSE.

The VolDEC platform software has been developed in partnership with NEF/BES by Carbon

Descent.

17. CONTACT US

Malcolm Hanna

Phil Jones

Technical Director

Senior Energy Consultant

National Energy Foundation

Building Energy Solutions

National Energy Centre

42 Santley Street

Davy Avenue

London

Knowlhill

SW4 7QD

Milton Keynes MK5 8NG

T: 01908 256924

M: 07964 349812

M: 07714 203045

E: malcolm.hanna@nef.org.uk

E: phil.jones@voldec.com

Registered Charity No. 298951

Registered in England with

liability limited by guarantee No.

2218531