With offices and public buildings accounting for almost one fifth of the country’s carbon footprint, the public will now be able to play a major role in cutting emissions by helping to compile the UK’s first building energy map.

On the LessEn website or via an App for iPhone, Android and Blackberry smart phones, the public can see the energy and carbon of the buildings all around them.

LessEn allows them to easily search and add their workplace free of charge. If it is listed, the building energy map displays the most recent energy rating and CO2 emissions data. People can also add comments about how they think their building is run, and explore ways to improve its energy performance via the LessEn website.

Already, the energy map features more than 30,000 public and private buildings in England and Wales. LessEn hopes the energy map and App will encourage office workers to take an active interest in tackling energy consumption.

“Because energy use is invisible, it is easy to ignore the problem or not even be aware of the size of it. By making the problem visible, we believe we can make significant in-roads into cutting energy and carbon across the UK’s building stock and engage people in a positive way,” says Alexandra Notay, project director at LessEn.

To encourage people to participate, LessEn has made it easy to add a workplace. They simply register an email address and then add the postcode of the building.

In addition to the building energy map, the LessEn website features a wealth of content. Some, like the Knowledge Bank, featuring case studies of energy-efficient buildings and policy papers, and the blog with video interviews, are aimed primarily towards the professional audience of building managers, property owners and investors. The website also includes advice and guidance aimed at a broader lay audience, including hints and tips on how to achieve quick wins in energy efficiency, particularly through simple changes in how people use their workplace.