Following the release of Scotland’s Heat in Building Strategy, the Scottish Government has been seeking views on developing a new regulatory framework for energy efficiency in non-domestic buildings.

The new framework will be adopted for all non-domestic buildings, to ensure they are energy efficient and use zero emissions heating and cooling systems by 2045.A Call for Evidence titled: “Regulation of energy efficiency in existing non-domestic buildings” was released in December, and sought evidence of existing approaches to improving energy efficiency, and converting buildings to zero emission heat sources.It proposed 3 possible regulatory approaches to regulation:

1. Measures-based approach – specifying a list of improvement measures that must be considered to reduce the energy demand associated with a non-domestic building.
2. Minimum standards approach – setting a standard for the building’s operation under standardised conditions, most typically based on achieving a certain EPC rating for modelled energy use or emissions.
3. Operational ratings approach – using the actual energy consumption and CO2e emissions from use of non-domestic buildings, as the basis for a regulatory approach.