Footprint

Civil servants responsible for cutting Britain’s carbon emissions have scrapped a plan to save energy by switching off the air conditioning and opening their windows.

During the plan’s month long trial, in which the top temperatures in London ranged from 24 to 28.5 degrees, staff complained about the heat, noise from construction work, the security risk of open windows and ‘the wrong kind of breeze’. After these comments, the window opening scheme was abandoned in favour of air conditioning the Grade II-listed Victorian building, ranked ‘G’ for energy efficiency. Staff at the Department of Energy and Climate Change were told that other ‘innovative ways’ of reducing the building’s carbon footprint would be looked at instead.

Donnachadh McCarthy from 3 Acorns Eco-Audits said that the decision ‘gives a terrible message to the public’.