Education + education + education = a greener Britain

Earlier this month I told you about our work with Southwold School and EDF Energy, teaching school kids about the importance of saving energy, while saving the school vital money.

It’s a shame that many adults don’t seem to share the same enthusiasm in learning how to reduce their carbon footprint!

Today ignoring energy efficiency is impossible – it is everywhere, from government pledges to local council incentives to recycle.

As we move ever closer to 2020 more emphasis is being placed on meeting the agreed targets to create greener and more sustainable businesses across the UK and we all have our part to play.

Meeting the set requirements and avoiding penalties can bring added pressures to businesses – especially facilities managers, many of which have overall responsibility for delivering reductions. The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme has been in place for two months now and for businesses that consume more than 6000 mega-watt hours (MWh) they have been focussing on monitoring energy intensive equipment and assets.

But it seems many have neglected to address one of the biggest causes of wasted energy, us.

As a manager of staff, I am keen to encourage my own employees to adopt simple measures to keep our company’s energy levels down. People account for a large amount of a building’s total carbon emissions and by ‘teaching’ your staff to make simple behavioural changes can result in a significant reduction of a company’s total energy usage. It is like any behavioural change, once we become used to doing it, it becomes a habit, so it is a win-win situation for everyone.

So it is back to school for many of us – we need to break the old habits of the past and introduce new ones which will help us all contribute to a greener way of life.

As a helping hand I have listed some useful hints and tips from the Carbon Trust below.

Hope you find them useful and let me know if you notice a difference!

Lisa


TIPS FROM THE CARBON TRUST:

Switch off lights in empty rooms
You could cut your lighting costs by as much as 15 per cent, just by making sure you turn off lights in rooms and corridors that aren’t being used.

Don’t turn up the heating unless necessaryTry to keep your thermostat at 19c. Your heating costs go up eight per cent for every 1c increase.

Maintain equipment properly
If you don’t regularly check your heating equipment, you could be adding as much as 10 per cent to your heating bill without knowing it.

Vending machines or kettles?
It is cheaper to provide a kettle for staff working outside normal business hours than to continue running a drinks vending machine.

Turning off computers
A single computer and monitor left on 24 hours a day will cost over £50 a year. Switching them off out of hours and enabling standby features could reduce this to £15 a year and prolong the lifespan of equipment.

Lighten up
Replacing high wattage filament lamps or tungsten halogen lamps with compact fluorescent lamps or metal halide lamps will give energy savings of 65 to 75 percent.

Fix compressed air leaks
Compressed air leaking through a single 3mm hole could cost you almost £700 a year.

And don’t forget my top 5 tips:
• Reduce your energy costs by identifying your building’s consumption and make changes or implement control systems.

• Build an energy efficiency team - display your energy performance, improvements or inefficiencies and educate your team on how they can help to build a better energy efficiency programme.

• Instigate change in your people and processes - be transparent about what you are trying to achieve and what you are actually doing. Show them where they can help and how they can help. Dashboards and software packages that are easy to use and interactive are a good place to start.

• Showcase your green credentials - display your conformance to energy legislation through dashboards and software packages.

• Save money... make money - reduce your energy consumption and you will save money. It is fact, being green will also make you money, as businesses are looking for a ‘green’ supply chain.

Good Luck!