Welcome to les-ter

LES-TER is an industry initiative led by the British Property Federation, with technical assistance from the Usable Buildings Trust and financial support from the Carbon Trust. 

It is a set of tools and a process designed to enable landlords and tenants to measure, understand and reduce their emissions from their ownership and occupancy of commercial buildings. 

• The landlord's energy statement (LES) is a tool that helps landlords understand their buildings' energy efficiency, compares the performance of common services (heating, lighting and ventilation supplied by the landlord) against similar buildings with similar uses, identifies any areas for improvement and illustrates where year on year improvements have been made.
• The tenant's energy review (TER) is a tool which allows tenants to assemble information on the energy and emissions attributable to the energy they purchase directly from suppliers.  It also records 'stress' factors (such as high densities of occupation, long hours and intensive energy uses, like dealing rooms and data centres).  It assists tenants in making energy reductions in the electricity uses they control through the production of an automated energy savings report, helping to identify potential savings opportunities.

Both LES and TER are recognised by Government guidance as an appropriate methodology for the data collection requirements of Display Energy Certificates under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, while providing greater insights into buildings' energy efficiency. 

The introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment in 2010 will require most large organisations to report their overall annual CO2 emissions, whilst also providing an incentive to improve year on year performance.  Due to the nomination of the holder of the energy supply contract as the responsible CRC participant, many landlords will become responsible for their tenants' emissions.  The LES-TER approach will provide a useful mechanism to help improve year on year performance for landlords and tenants affected by the Scheme.

Use of the LES and TER is free; all you need to do is register your details and you will be able to download the workbooks and guidance.

Relevant articles