Office Practice
If you're not sure how to assess your energy usage, use a recognised expert such as the Carbon Trust. The Carbon Trust provides free surveys to larger users, but also offers phone advice to smaller companies.
Always ensure appliances are not left on stand by. An estimated £740 million of electricity is lost every year by equipment being left in standby mode.
Energy Management
Saving energy is one of the easiest ways for you to reduce costs and enhance your reputation as an environmentally aware organisation.
Reducing your energy consumption, by simple but effective methods, can reduce energy bills by up to 25%. Here are some examples...
- Change to low energy bulbs – compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) use 70% less energy and last ten times longer than traditional bulbs.
- If you have air conditioning, it can dramatically increase energy usage – accounting for over 30% of annual electricity consumption. Set temperature controls as high as possible in summer – and 24 degrees C or more at other times to ensure it is not operating at the same time as heating.
- Replace your boiler - the older your boiler, the less efficient it is likely to be. This means you will be wasting energy and increasing costs.
- Turn your central heating thermostat down – a one-degree centigrade reduction could reduce energy consumption by as much as 10%.
- If your workplace is too hot, make sure the heating is turned down, as opposed to windows opened and set heating on timers so it is turned off during evenings and weekends.
- Turn off all non-essential equipment overnight – including photocopiers, PCs, monitors, printers and lights where possible. Use time switches where possible.
- Make energy savings through energy-efficient appliances.
- Where possible, buy energy from a company offering alternatives to fossil fuelled power stations using renewable resources. Independent bodies such as Which? and Ethical Consumer magazine offer impartial and well researched information and utility website www.energylinx.co.uk offers an online price comparison specifically for green energy.
Case Study: Hilton Hotels
Five Hilton hotels in Paris reduced their energy use by 20% over a 6 month period. Simple changes in practice combined with making hotel equipment as energy efficient as possible cut the hotels' combined carbon dioxide emissions by 1,167 tonnes.