Somerset House aims to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
We aim to be cultural leaders in championing sustainability across the organisation through both our own internal ways of working and through our cultural programme. In 2018-19 51% of our energy was generated on site, our highest ever percentage, thanks to our combined cooling and heating plant, and our Earth Day Season is now a keenly anticipated highlight of our cultural calendar.
In partnership with the Northbank and TfL, we reduced deliveries by 12% to minimise pollution in the local area, and we improved our Creative Green certification through, Julie’s Bicycle, from 3* to 4* in recognition of our dedication to sustainability and green initiatives.
In 2016, we installed a new combined cooling, heating and power plant, in 2018 this produced 49% of all electricity at Somerset House. The heat generated by the process then goes to warm the building during winter and cool it in summer, dramatically reducing our CO2 emissions.
We’ve improved our Grade I-listed building in many other ways, from the thermal insulation we’ve added to the building to the high-intensity, low-energy LED floodlights we’ve installed in The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, and our high-tech building management system helps us reduce our energy consumption round the clock. We aim to recycle as much as possible, with other waste used for power generation. We also aim for zero to landfill.
We're working with Somerset House resident Julie's Bicycle to find ways to reduce further our carbon footprint and we've just been upgraded to four stars for our commmitment to sustainability.
