Cameron McColl, who co-founded Memory Corporation in the 1990s, and a group of entrepreneurs have set up an energy services company to finance the installation and maintenance of environmentally friendly systems to heat and cool new buildings throughout the UK and Europe.

Cameron McColl, who co-founded Memory Corporation in the 1990s, and a group of entrepreneurs have set up an energy services company to finance the installation and maintenance of environmentally friendly systems to heat and cool new buildings throughout the UK and Europe.

McColl, who is now chairman of Greenrock Energy, and his team are going to the financial markets to raise £10m in equity from investors.

Greenrock will manage the energy services company, which will finance the installation and operation of ground source heat pump systems. GSHP systems use solar energy stored just below the earth's surface to heat buildings, and can also cool buildings by transferring heat from buildings to the ground.

The systems are used across the globe to reduce carbon emissions from buildings. GSHP's proven technology is highly efficient and can provide carbon savings of 50% or more compared to conventional energy sources such as gas, oil and electricity. "GSHP systems are a significant weapon in the battle to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions," said McColl.

He previously set up two high-technology call centre operations, McColl McGregor and Telecom Service Centres, and helped set up Memory, the Edinburgh-based specialist in computer chip repair technology that floated on the Alternative Investment Market in 1995. He is involved in several other businesses in the UK and abroad. McColl and his co-directors set up the company to meet the rising demand for resource efficiency and the efforts to address the issues presented by climate change.

The construction industry is braced for new economic and environmental sustainability rules imposed by government and building occupiers in both public and private sectors are demanding buildings that incorporate alternative energy solutions.

The board also includes chief executive, Calum Innes, a partner in the property consultancy firm CKD Galbraith, and chief operating officer John Flavell Smith, co-founder of Vibtech, an oil exploration services company.

The other board members are finance director Ken Brown, formerly of Eclipse BIinds and Kenmore Property Group, and Brian Wilson, who was UK Energy Minister from 2001 to 2003.

Despite its environmental and cost benefits, GSHP has been taken up in only a handful of key UK building projects because of its perceived high up-front costs and the UK's extensive gas supply grid.

However, Greenrock said it will address this with an innovative business model, paying for installation and handling the often complex design and infrastructure issues and charging building owners or occupiers for energy used.