Europoint Centre
Key facts on Europoint
| Built | 1960s |
| Building type | Commercial office |
| Size | 9300 sqm |
| Tenure | Freehold |
| Number of tenants | 17 |
| Average occupance | 500-600 |
| Sector | Real estate |
Southbank’s Europoint Centre offers six floors of modern office space for 17 tenants, ranging from technology companies to academic institutions. Europoint bought the building in 1996, with a major refurbishment completed in 2004 and ongoing maintenance to date.
The Better Bankside Business Improvement District connected Europoint with the Mayor’s Business Climate Challenge (BCC), which offered its leaders a way to identify low-cost, high-impact energy savings measures. As a landlord, Europoint also saw the programme as an opportunity to better collaborate with its tenants to boost building-wide energy efficiency.
Business Climate Challenge journey
Europoint has held a long-term focus on environmentally-friendly practices.
In 2010, The company’s first EPC rating was a relatively low D81. Europoint’s office manager, Richard Green, undertook improvements, including installing LED lightbulbs, that brought the business to an EPC of C69 in 2019.
However, Europoint’s leaders still wanted to get smarter about future refurbishments. “I was spending all of this money,” Green said. “But was I really spending it on the right things?”
Energy and building improvements
Europoint particularly valued the BCC’s energy audit and recommendations, its specifics on expected carbon and cost savings, and tailored guidance on smart detection sensors.
Learnings from the BCC report have already driven action, including installation of timers on the building’s rooftop ventilation system and main entrance over-door heating system, and detection sensors on corridor lighting.
Those improvements have already driven results, contributing to an A25 rating on Europoint’s most recent EPC survey. The business has also achieved the BCC’s goal of 10 per cent energy savings.
I’m really delighted by our progress. The assistance from the BCC on where exactly to put the sensors and make alterations. That’s what helped us hit our highest EPC rating yet.
Business Climate Challenge priority recommendations
- Install timer on the rooftop extract ventilation system.
- Install automatic timer on main entrance door heater.
- Implement presence detection sensors on the lighting in communal areas.
- Install a solar PV array on the flat roof.
Total potential energy savings: 23 per cent.
Next steps
- Reviewing different service models to see if the business can pursue the audit recommendation to install rooftop solar panels.
- Planning a joint presentation with its tenants who participated in the BCC to encourage other tenants in the building to make office upgrades to reduce energy consumption.
- Organising small group discussions with other tenants in the building to help them better understand Europoint’s BCC experience and low-cost, energy-saving measures.
The BCC has really helped shift our mindset. My staff and I now consciously review the ratings of all the products we buy. The next step is to work with as many of our tenants as we can to reduce energy usage building-wide.