Greening your business

What’s in it for you?

Becoming more energy and resource efficient makes good business sense. By taking some simple steps to reduce your businesses environmental impacts, companies of all sizes can save money, increase their competitive edge and avoid future penalties through increased legislation.

Here are some ideas on how to become ‘greener’ and save money at the same time:

Energy reduction

Escalating energy costs are encouraging businesses of all sizes to consider their energy consumption. By becoming more efficient at work, SMEs can make significant cost savings over a year.

Some small steps include:

• Switch off all lights and electrical appliances when they are not in use
• Use energy saving light bulbs. One energy saving light bulb will save up to £60 over its life time and 26kg of CO2 - the equivalent of 91 balloons
• Switch off computer monitors.  One flat screen monitor saves almost £3 and 1,289 footballs of CO2 per year.  Depending on the number of computers in your business this can add up to significant savings
• Switch off the photocopier.  Leaving a photocopier on standby overnight costs over £4 a year and emits enough CO2 to fill 139,776 balloons
• Turn down your thermostat.  Turning down your thermostat by 10C can save up to 10% of your energy bills
• Install an inexpensive energy timer to switch off all appliances during out of office hours

Water reduction

As the population of London grows, so do our demands on the capitals water resources. As businesses are charged for the water that enters and leaves their premises, reducing your water consumption makes economic sense. 

Some tips include:

• Ensure all taps are switched off fully - a 5mm stream of water wastes 528 000 litres of water each year which cost approximately £705
• Installing a “hippo” water saving device will save up to 3 litres of water per flush
• If your kitchen has a dishwasher ensure that it is always set to the economy mode

Waste management

Businesses in the UK are throwing away approximately 4% of their turnover in waste.  Recycling rates in the UK are below the European average and Londoners are creating enough waste to fill Trafalgar Square every day.   

There are significant economic benefits to be gained by reducing and recycling the amount of waste in your business. 

Simple steps include:

• Reduce paper use by
  - Setting all printers to duplex as a default
  - Using paper that has been printed on one side only as scrap or to print internal documents
  - Only print when necessary, use track changes for proof reading and send information electronically as often as possible
• Avoid buying any unnecessary items
• Organise a recycling company to collect your glass, bottles, plastic and waste paper
• Conduct a waste spot check to ensure that all waste is being recycled

Sustainable travel

Business travel is often the largest contributor to an organisation’s carbon footprint. 

There are many alternatives to flying and solo-car occupancy:

• Providing phone or video-conferencing facilities
• Using public transport to attend meetings
• Encourage cycling to meetings and make your staff more healthy and productive

If driving is essential, steps can be taken to reduce their environmental impact:

• Car share by registering with a Liftshare database
• Drive using eco-driving techniques:
  - Change up gears before 2,000rpm
  - Anticipate road conditions and drive smoothly, avoiding sharp acceleration and heavy braking. This saves fuel and reduces accident rates
  - Use air conditioning sparingly as it significantly increases fuel consumption
  - Drive away immediately when starting from cold - idling to heat the engine wastes fuel and causes rapid engine wear
  - Avoid short journeys - a cold engine uses almost twice as much fuel and catalytic converters can take five miles to become effective
  - Check your tyre pressure regularly - under-inflated tyres are dangerous and can increase fuel consumption by up to 3%
  - If you're stuck in a jam, and expect to be there for more than a minute, switch the engine off

Related links

• www.globalactionplan.org.uk

   

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