Anyone who is developing or managing a public private partnership, including private finance initiative projects, and other significant public procurements involving capital investment. It provides practical help to assist you to green your scheme.
By taking account of relevant environmental considerations you can achieve significant additional benefits and possible savings.
It explains why you need to take green issues seriously and how best to reflect legitimate environmental considerations in the objectives of a scheme. It also points you to sources of advice and practical help.
Not at all, you just have to be clear about what you want.
It can. By following a few simple steps from the start, you can achieve value for money, deliver a much better scheme and at the same time reduce waste and improve the environment. Its a win-win opportunity.
In addition to straightforward practical advice this document also includes examples of projects where the decision to take account of the green agenda will deliver value for money over their 25-30 year lifetimes.
PPP: Public Private Partnerships bring public and private sectors together in long term partnership for mutual benefit. The PPP label covers a wide range of different types of partnership including the Private Finance Initiative, the introduction of private sector ownership into state-owned businesses and selling Government services into wider markets and other partnership arrangements where private sector expertise and finance are used to exploit the commercial potential of Government assets. The full range of PPPs is explained in the Treasury publication Public Private Partnerships The Governments Approach.
PFI: The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is a procurement mechanism by which the public sector contracts to purchase quality services on a long term basis so as to take advantage of private sector management skills incentivised by having private finance at risk. This includes concessions and franchises, where a private sector partner takes on the responsibility for providing a public service, including maintaining, enhancing or constructing necessary infrastructure.
Greening Government: Is the process of integrating sustainable development and environmental considerations into decision making at all levels across government. The term Sustainable Development in Government is now preferred as it more accurately reflects the work of Green Ministers.
Sustainable Development: Ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come that is social progress, protection of the environment, prudent use of natural resources and economic growth all at the same time.
Value for money: The Governments procurement policy is that all public procurement of goods and services, including works, is to be based on best value for money the optimum combination of whole life cost and quality to meet the requirement.
EC procurement rules: Shorthand for the EC Treaty, Procurement Directives, and the UK Regulations that implement them, and case law. Procurement Directives apply to most purchasing contracts let by the public sector where the value exceeds certain thresholds, and they include detailed requirements for specifications, selection of candidates and award of contracts. The government policy and the EC rules are known collectively as the policy and legal framework.
Environmental Management System: Is the structure, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources which enable an organisation to continuously improve its environmental performance.
Environmental Policy: Is a publicly available document committing a public authority to an understanding of its environmental impacts and achieving continuing improvement through setting objectives and targets.
1.1 The essence of PPP and Private Finance Initiative contracts is that they place the risks with the party best placed to manage them thus ensuring best value for money. Traditional public procurement can be characterised by separate contracts being let for construction, maintenance and facilities management. The long term and integrated nature of PPP service contracts incentivises the contractors to consider the synergies between the design of an asset and its ultimate operating costs. This can result in the delivery of public services in a more environmentally sensitive way and without an additional price tag.
1.2 Treasury rules require that PPP and PFI projects demonstrate that they achieve value for money based on the appropriate transfer of risk to the private sector. Value for money is defined by Treasury as the optimum combination of whole life cost and quality (or fitness for purpose) to meet the users requirement.
1.3 The emphasis on whole life costs means that public sector contracting authorities are required to take account of all aspects of cost, including running and disposal costs, as well as the initial purchase price of an asset. The reference to quality to meet the customers requirement enables contracting authorities to specify what they need to do to meet their own operational and policy objectives while contributing to the Governments objectives on environmental matters. Contracting authorities must, of course, satisfy themselves that specifications are justifiable in terms of need, cost effectiveness and affordability.
1.4 The contractor, which may be a consortium, for a public private partnership has a financial motivation for considering which design features and construction materials will generate optimum whole life costs across the life of the contract. This might mean a contractor choosing to invest in higher cost design features if those features will be offset by lower maintenance and running costs during the operational life of a contract and beyond.
1.5 Environmental considerations, set out in documents such as environmental policies, are intended to help achieve the Governments objective of a more sustainable environment, which is a government objective. Many of these considerations can also have a positive impact on the operation of a project. Whilst requiring materials such as timber to come from legal and sustainably managed sources is a good aim in itself, an efficient heating system for an office building can both help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy usage (two high level environmental objectives) and result in lower whole life costs for the contractor.
1.6 There is a problem of perception that environmental technologies and materials are an expensive luxury that government can not afford. This is clearly wrong. PPP projects have demonstrated that investing to deliver environmental improvements can secure not only best value for money through lower running costs but also health and social benefits such as better working conditions. The adoption of green outputs can also help to accelerate the development and take-up of green technologies a sector of growing importance to the UK economy.
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Good design can deliver whole life and environmental benefits Good design is crucial to the success of a project and should achieve savings in whole life costs and improvements in environmental performance and productivity. In addition well designed public buildings can help deliver wider benefits to the communities where they are located (as set out in the Better Public Buildings document produced by OGC/DCMS).To enable good design there should be a clear and concise statement of output requirements that includes the values and evaluation criteria to be employed. Sufficient time must be allowed to enable full and proper consideration of these requirements. There also needs to be a commitment from both the service provider and contracting authority to achieve quality objectives such as reducing the use of energy, water and other resources, minimising waste and controlling pollution. Bidders will need to consider the following issues in developing a PPP proposal:
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1.7 In establishing a project it is important to be clear about what environmental objectives are to be delivered. The addition of green requirements to the project specification at a later date will inevitably require the project to refocus around the new overall requirement which may have cost implications and lead to problems under the EC rules.
1.8 High level questions to ask about the project might include:
1.9 On a more practical level, the following issues might be considered in drawing up the outline business case for a project:
1.10 The project team needs to reflect the full range of skills necessary to take the project through to contract signature.
1.11 Some dos and don'ts for creating successful green PPPs:
Do draft an output specification which focuses on ends rather than means. A suitably open specification should emphasise the need for good design that is efficient, functional, structurally sound, flexible, sustainable and responsive to the local environment. This is covered in more detail in section 4.
Don't go for lowest price. The requirement in the public sector to achieve value for money for the tax payer means looking beyond initial price to take account of whole life costs and quality. A low cost design may result in high maintenance and operating costs as well as environmental impacts.
Do explain in the output specification any legal requirements which may affect the design or govern how the services are to be provided, for example, statutory performance standards, requirements for components or manufacturing techniques.
Do use electronic media to avoid use of unnecessary paper in the procurement process itself.
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Case Study: Inland Revenue Manchester Office Rationalisation In 1995 the Inland Revenue (IR) embarked on a project to relocate 2000 staff from 11 buildings in the Manchester area to a single site. By August 1998 they had all moved into new fully serviced offices in Manchester City Centre, as a result of a£140m PFI project awarded to London & Regional Properties. The contract will run for 20 years. The IRs primary objective was to obtain replacement serviced office accommodation in central Manchester at optimal cost. However, in specifying its requirement the IR required all the bidders to comply with the Inland Revenue Green Guide. The successful scheme involved a building that was naturally ventilated (i.e. no air conditioning), lighting that switched itself off when people left, gas-fired heating with individual thermostatically controlled radiators, double glazing, building materials from sustainable sources and building management systems that monitored the use of resources. |
2.1 Public projects are increasingly being scrutinised by Green Ministers and stakeholders such as the Environmental Audit Committee, non-governmental organisations and the public. To ensure they take proper account of environmental and other sustainable development issues it is essential that they reflect Government commitments and departmental aims and objectives.
2.2 There is no overall checklist for projects and this guidance does not propose to offer an exhaustive list of issues for consideration, however, a number of the key issues and considerations are set out in Annex A. All projects are different, even those where a contracting authority has a programme of similar projects, such as the Highways Agency and HM Prison Service. However, where there is a programme of projects there is an opportunity to develop an environmental strategy and checklist for new projects.
2.3 The main sources of guidance to be referred to in developing a public private partnership which can help achieve an outcome with lower whole-life costs and environmental benefits are:
Government departments already have strategies for greening their operations based on the Model Framework for Greening Government Operations in place for conserving energy, water and other resources, minimising waste and controlling pollution. These will be developed further with the introduction in 2002 of the new Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate.
The contract specification for a PPP project should accord with the aims, objectives and targets contained in any relevant departmental strategies. The PPP contract should ideally be sufficiently flexible to take account of any new targets and future monitoring and reporting requirements which may develop over the lifetime of the project.
This guidance was published by the Government Construction Clients Panel in June 2000 and places targets on Government departments to achieve: value for money on the basis of whole lifecosts; high BREEAM assessments; less waste; energy and water efficiencies that meet at least current best practice for construction type; enhancement of biodiversity; less pollution; better environmental management and improved health and safety on building sites; better working environment and increased productivity; increased engagement with local communities as part of the decision making process; and improved industry performance against Egan targets.
This guide was revised in February 2000 and sets out the rules to be followed when specifying contractual requirements in green terms. The requirements must, for example, be included in the tender, be relevant to the contract and, where appropriate, refer to relevant European standards and specifications. It also covers whole life costs, resource efficiency and best practice.
The guide also contains a series of action sheets useful to help buyers in specific areas such as construction, energy efficiency, hazardous substances, transport, waste, water and wood.
Authoritative guidance is given in the Treasury-DETR note Environmental Issues in Purchasing and in the Commission Interpretative Communication on environmental considerations in public procurement (COM(2001) 274 Final). Details of how to gain access to these and other sources of useful guidance are set out in Annex B.
2.4 The Government issues environmental guidance from a variety of different departments, agencies and other sponsored bodies. It is not enough to take account of the present position, a long term PPP should be flexible to future needs. Whilst there is no single source of environmental information, the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate gives a clear steer to government commitments, objectives and targets. The Framework will be published on the Greening Government web site (given in Annex B).
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BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) September 1998 BREEAM is a tool used to assess the environmental impact of buildings and is a requirement of all new government buildings and major refurbishments. BREEAM 98 provides a flexible assessment method valid throughout the life of a building giving emphasis to issues of growing environmental importance such as transport, water consumption and construction materials. BREEAM 98 includes a Green Guide to Specification and an environmental profiling system for building materials and components. Green Ministers require environmental assessments using BREEAM or equivalent of all projects to achieve at least excellent ratings for new buildings |
3.1 The EC public procurement directives provide plenty of scope for reflecting environmental considerations in procurement. Project teams should ensure that they conform to the rules, which are designed to ensure that public procurement is carried out on the basis of transparency, non-discrimination and competitive procurement. Project teams considering the inclusion of environmental issues should pay particular attention to the EC procurement rules at the following key stages:
3.2 In considering green requirements there are some dos and don'ts to ensure that a project is compliant with the EC procurement rules:
Do ensure that contract specifications are non-discriminatory, allow for equivalent means to meet the underlying requirement and adhere to the rules on technical specifications set out in the directives;
Do, in the absence of European, international, or other relevant standards covering the required environmental aspects, or where a higher level of environmental protection is required, consider defining specifications in line with Eco-label criteria and indicate that products having Eco-label certificates are deemed to comply with the requirement. Allowance must be made for means, other than the Eco-label certificate itself, to demonstrate the required performance;
Do consider the inclusion of environmental management schemes (ISO 14001 and EMAS) as a relevant measure of proof of technical capability. However, in order to be relevant, the management scheme should provide evidence relevant to the subject or performance of the contract.
3.3 Some pitfalls to avoid when employing green considerations in a project procurement are:
3.4 The best way of ensuring that the inclusion of green considerations conforms to the requirements of the EC procurement rules is by giving thorough consideration to the requirements at the projects inception and the subsequent procurement strategy. An environmental impact assessment might be carried out at the time the business requirement is being identified. It should then be possible to identify the various costs associated with the green issues and implement a strategy for taking appropriate consideration of these issues in:
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European Commission Interpretative Communication on green procurement (2001)
The interpretative document can be found on: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/gpp/index.htm |
4.1 The contract specification for a public private partnership affords the opportunity and freedom to potential contractors to propose innovative solutions which integrate the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a new or existing public facility. It should be expressed in terms of the service outputs and outcomes required rather than a tightly specified list of inputs. In some cases, the main outputs of projects may be green objectives, for example targets for recycling and composting in PFI projects for waste management. The specification should be sufficiently tight to ensure compliance with what is required but not so explicit that it discourages innovative solutions that offer good value for money. A good specification will:
4.2 Some key dos and don'ts to ensure that a specification accords with departmental environmental objectives include:
Do read Chapter 22 of Government Accounting (on the Governments procurement policy), the Joint Treasury/DETR note, the Commissions interpretative document on Environmental issues under the procurement rules and CUP 51on the EC procurement rules.
Do take account of the departmental environment strategy and any targets therein.
Do make full use of the flexibility afforded under the procurement policy and legal framework.
Do consider the whole life costs and quality of a project.
Do take account of the specific advice in section 3 of the Green Guide for Buyers (see Annex B).
Do ensure that government commitments to sustainable development are taken account of in the PPP/PFI scheme. Useful information can be found on the Greening Government web site.
Don't just look for lowest cost in commissioning the project.
Do express the requirement genuinely in terms of outputs and indicate the expected links between design and construction and the finished assets running costs and environmental outputs.
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Green Guide for Buyers This guidance provides a useful checklist of issues for writing contract specifications. Key points include:
The Green Guide for Buyers can be found at: |
5.1 Throughout the PPP project the project team will be expected to develop and maintain a business case. The final business case will present all the relevant information which will enable a decision to be made about a contract award. The business case will therefore need to take account of the environmental requirements of the project, and in its final form to provide an assessment of the preferred option with appropriate commentary.
5.2 The business case should demonstrate that any specified environmental standards are reasonable, achievable and cost effective. It will also need to present any cost assumptions relating to a public sector comparator for the project. The inclusion of green technologies in what might appear to be higher up front capital costs will need to be explained in terms of their cost effectiveness over the lifetime of the contract and the environmental benefits they deliver.
5.3 During the development of the business case it is important to identify key stakeholders with environmental interests and those who need to be consulted on such matters. The project team might wish to involve outside advisory bodies such as BRECSU, and technical advisors.
5.4 The business case should reflect the departmental strategy for sustainable development and environmental policies (useful sources of information for this are set out in section 5). It should also take account of any environmental cost compliance exercise carried out in accordance with your departments policy.
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Watermark Saving water and money Watermark is a government-wide project managed by OGC Buying Solutions to conserve water and thereby reduce the cost of water services paid by the public sector (which spends some £600 million a year). Organisations which join the scheme are asked to provide data, which is made available via an online database that allows managers to compare water usage of similar types of building. One early success came from HM Treasury, Parliament St, London, whose annual water bill of £40,000 was reduced to £14,000 after participation in the Watermark scheme.
More information can
be found at:
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6.1 The selection of bidders and evaluation of their bids allows an opportunity to examine the abilities of the firms and how they have responded to the environmental requirements within the specification.
6.2 In selecting bidders, contracting authorities might choose to look for:
6.3 The evaluation methodology for the contract will need to both test the compliance of bids to the specification as well as give proportionate weight to the importance of the various criteria being evaluated. The evaluation process may therefore include a specific consideration of how the bidder is proposing to handle various environmental issues set out in the specification.
6.4 Project teams should be looking for bidders to demonstrate that they have understood the needs of the site and that they have the ability to develop appropriate solutions which meet any requirements to conserve resources, minimise waste and reduce pollution both during construction and during the life time of the project.
6.5 The final evaluation of tenders should not be based on initial price alone. It should also take into consideration whole life costs, quality, deliverability, flexibility, management and apportionment of risk, innovation, increases in productivity and other relevant factors.
6.6 The evaluation methodology should be clear about how the costs and benefits of proposals are to be measured and also about who is to carry out the assessment of the bid proposal, including any environmental claims. This might be suitable work for technical advisors, or for departmental energy and environmental managers.
6.7 The evaluation team will need to ask do the green claims made by bidders make sense, satisfy the specification, and do they offer anything more? The advice given in this guidance note and on the greening government web site, such as the Governments Green Claims Code, should help to answer these questions.
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The Green Claims Code The Green Claims Code provides advice about environmentalclaims made by contractors which are not substantiated as well asclaims for products or environmental marks which have no formalrecognition. Some typical examples to watch out for include: Contains no X Where no products of this type any longer contain X, or X is in any case prohibited by law. Biodegradable Meaningless if not explained. An item might biodegrade in 5 days or may take several years with the right conditions. Environmentally friendly or Made with care for the environment Meaningless if not explained. Does not necessarily qualify the whole product as being environmentally preferable if it applies to only one aspect of the products production.
The Green Claims Code
can be found at:
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6.8 Finally, the EC procurement rules require contracting authorities to provide feedback if requested by unsuccessful bidders. There will therefore be an opportunity to comment on the environmental aspects of their proposals and how these were evaluated. Such feedback should help to transform the market into taking greater account of environmental considerations.
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Case Study: Ministry of Defence Colchester Garrison the provision of accommodation and office services(expected to reach financial close in 2002) Colchester is home to one of the Armys largest training garrisons. In 1996 the Ministry of Defence decided to take the PFI route to upgrade the serviced accommodation and office facilities on its 316 hectare site in the heart of Colchester.The£1bn project involves providing 52,800 square metres (sq m)of serviced accommodation, 3,700 sq m of offices, 6,600 sq m of training facilities and over 300,000 sq m of paved areas, excluding roads. From the outset the MOD was keen to support the local authoritys green aspirations for the site the introduction of two 80m wide green corridors, the adoption of central greenfields, the retention of all trees on the site and measures to encourage the use of bicycles. In addition, the MOD required all bidders to comply with the BREEAM standard and BREs Energy Consumption Guide 75 which required them to benchmark energy consumption. The Army was spending around £1.6m per annum on energy at Colchester and wished to reduce this significantly. The ability of bidders to comply with the green requirements of the scheme were included as part of the evaluation process and made up 5 per cent of the assessment score. |
7.1 Effective contract management is crucial to the success of a public private partnership. Unlike conventional procurements for assets and services where individual contracts may be for short periods and public assets are solely acquired or renovated, the PPP relationship (covering investment, maintenance and operation) is intended to last 25-30 years. It is essential that a real partnering relationship is established between contracting authority and contractor and contract management will require a different approach than shorter contracts.
7.2 This does not mean that contract management for PPPs provides a less effective regime; on the contrary, it has to ensure the long term effectiveness of the contract and the incentives on the contractor to deliver the service to the specified requirement.
7.3 An effective payment mechanism which takes account of an Environmental Management System (EMS) will provide the basis for ensuring that the contractor delivers the service to the required standard and will ensure the contractor is penalised financially should the service fall below an acceptable standard. An EMS will provide a useful framework for the day to day management of the systems provided under the contract.
7.4 The payment mechanism will need to take account of the environmental outputs required in the contract and ensure that appropriate incentives are applied to ensure delivery. Where an environmental output is to form part of the payment mechanism it should be measurable and the method should be indicated
7.5 As with all the other elements of the PPP, it is essential that the individual or team managing the contract has a clear understanding of the requirements of the contract and the thought processes behind them. There is a danger that once the PPP deal is signed the project team will break up and a full understanding of the requirement and the underlying justifications will not be retained by the contracting authority.
7.6 Environmental requirements should not be allowed to be considered a politically correct add-on to a contract which can be discarded at a later date through lack of understanding. Given the long time-frame of such contracts it is important that new contract management staff are appropriately briefed about the contract structure and its objectives.
7.7 As well as the payment mechanism, there are further opportunities for exploring how the environmental aspects of a PPP contract are being handled. Gateway 5 of the OGC Gateway Review process, applicable to all central civil government procurement projects, focuses on ensuring that a project is delivering the benefits and value for money identified in the business case and benefits plans. This Gateway Review should ideally be held 6 12 months after the asset is available for service when evidence of the in-service benefits is available. Gateway 5 takes place after the organisation has carried out a post implementation review or similar major review. For long term contracts such as PFI and strategic partnering arrangements a Gateway 5 review should be repeated to continue to check for benefits delivery and improving value for money.
7.8 The significance of the contract in the wider political sphere will need to be acknowledged and arrangements should be made for monitoring environmental performance and reporting on progress to stakeholders such as Green Ministers, MPs, non-governmental organisations and the public.
7.9 Continuous improvement is an underlying assumption within PPP contracts in the interests of maximising efficiency and value for money for the taxpayer. Benchmarking performance is an important way of driving up performance within the life of a long contract. It is realistic to expect environmental standards agreed by government to become more rigorous over time. It is therefore likely that Ministers will expect any new standards agreed by government to either be incorporated within operational contracts or for some account to be taken of them in intended outputs.
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Case Study: London Underground Power Supply and Maintenance In the early 1990s, London Underground (LU) was faced with the problem of maintaining electricity supply for the Underground network with ageing generating assets in Chelsea and Greenwich that were unable to cope with the growing demands of the system. LU decided to take all its future supply requirements from the National Grid and to retain a limited generating capacity to cover for failures in supply from the Grid. It was decided that a solution would be found by taking the PFI route. LU places a high priority on maintaining the environment and on reducing the organisations impact on the environment, and so it set tough environmental standards for the decommissioning and redevelopment of its power stations. The bid evaluation process, therefore, focused on the bidders understanding of LUs environment policy and their ability to conform to it. Seeboard Powerlink were awarded a 30-year £1bn PFI contract to supply and manage the distribution of high voltage electricity to the Underground network. The contract was awarded in August 1998 and involved a private capital investment of£100m by the successful contractor. The contract also included the decommissioning of one power station and there development of the site for other uses, the establishing of an Environmental Management System as a framework for the day to day management of systems and a contribution to LU environmental objectives. The project also involved improvements to the power generation systems at Greenwich that will reduce the level of greenhouse gases produced. |
The new Framework, Towards More Sustainable Construction and Green Guide for Buyers together provide a wealth of information about whole life costs and environmental considerations. Set out below are a number of issues that contractors may wish to consider when drafting their tender to demonstrate compliance with any environmental objectives in the contract specification.
Enquiries about greening government and environmental issues should be addressed to the departmental environmental manager.
Environment and Energy Helpline 0800 585794
Best Practice Programme Design Advice 01923 664258
Centre for Whole Life Performance 01923 664389
Achieving Sustainability in Construction
Procurement
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/sdtoolkit/reference/ogc_library/achievingexcellence/sustainability.pdf
Green Guide for Buyers
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/sdig/improving/partf/greenbuy/index.htm
Joint HM Treasury/DETR (now DEFRA) note on
Environmental Issues in Purchasing Buyers
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/sdig/reports/index.htm
CUP Guidance No. 51 Introduction to the EC Procurement
Rules
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/sdtoolkit/reference/ogc_library/procurement/IntroEuprocurerules010705.pdf
Greening Government web site
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/sdig/index.htm
Government Sustainable Development
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk
Building Research Establishment
http://www.bre.co.uk/sustainable/index.html
Envirowise Practical Environmental Advice for Business
http://www.envirowise.gov.uk
Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme
http://www.energy-efficiency.gov.uk
Office of Government Commerce
http://www.ogc.gov.uk
Getting Signed Up Energy Services for the Public
Sector(DETR, Oct 2001)
http://www.energy-efficiency.gov.uk/en_serv/index.htm
Business & Climate Change: UK Advisory Service web site
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/index.htm
Pollution Prevention & Control web site
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/ppc/index.htm
Energy Efficiency web site
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/energy/index.htm
Using the PFI for the Upgrade and Extension of Community Heating New Practice Report 123 [BRECSU, 2002] http://www.bre.co.uk
Energy Services PFI Projects for Community Heating New
Practice Profile 123 [BRECSU, 2002]
http://www.bre.co.uk
OGC Property & Construction web site
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp
Sustainable development in the NHS
http://www.nhsestates.gov.uk
Company guidelines on reporting waste web site
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/envrp/index.htm
DEFRAs Waste & Recycling web site
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/index.htm
Waste Strategy 2000
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/strategy/cm4693/index.htm
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) -WRAP is a
not-for-profit private sector company funded by Government
to promote sustainable waste management.
http://www.wrap.org.uk
Smartwaste A waste minimisation tool from BRE
http://www.smartwaste.co.uk
Watermark (OGC Buying Solutions)
http://www.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk/energy/services/services_conservation_water_benchmarking.asp
BRE Centre for Whole Life Performance
http://www.bre.co.uk/whole_life
The Green Book Appraisal and evaluation in Central
Government
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pdf/2000/greenbook.pdf