Carbon Savings Tips
Carbon saving in your building is easier than you think. Anything which impacts on your building's energy bill counts towards reducing emissions.
Everyone can get involved with straightforward and practical measures such as turning lights and monitors off in the office or simply printing out fewer emails and reducing reliance on air conditioning. Behavioural changes among employees is vital and can result in a more comfortable workplace as well as cutting carbon levels and saving on energy bills.
Longer term changes could include investing in new technology or introducing new lighting and heating systems to a building, as well as the purchasing of recycled paper and energy efficient appliances. Anything that uses energy or burns fuel emits carbon and can therefore be targeted.
Did you Know?
- Switching off the lights overnight in an empty meeting room throughout the year can save 440kg CO2.
- Replacing standard fluorescent lights in a typical 10,000m2 office with energy efficient lamps and electronic ballasts and adding sensors could save as much as 135t CO2 per year which will save £19,000 per annum.
- Automatic lighting controls in public and circulation areas waste energy and cause discomfort - properly calibrated lighting controls in a 15m-long corridor can save 250kg CO2.
- Switching off a photocopier at night and at weekends can save 20kg of CO2 a month and £35 a year.
- A monitor uses 3 times more energy when it is switched on than while on standby.
- CRT monitors use twice as much energy and emit twice as much heat as flat LCD monitors.
- Ensuring that chargers and power supplies in offices are unplugged when not charging has no costs and can save up to 10% on energy bills.
- If 20 people commit to plug in their chargers only when charging their phones, it will save 1t CO2 per year.
- Switching off or unplugging a microwave has no costs and will save 80kg of CO2 per year.
HEATING AND COOLING
- Ensuring that office windows are shut at night during winter has can save 15g CO2 and £2 per office per night.
- Implementing a renewable energy system such as a solar water heating systems can reduce energy consumption by up to 5% and save on bills.
- Recycling paper; recycling 1 tonne of paper is equivalent to providing heat and hot water for a home for a year.
- It also saves 15 trees, 2.5 barrels of oil, 2.26m3 of landfill spaces, 31,320 gallons of water and 27kg of air pollutants.
- Setting double-sided copying feature as default on the copier can save 1.5t CO2 per year.
- A dripping tap can waste 90 litres of water a week.
- A constantly dripping tap can waste 500 000 litres of water per year. This could cost your business about £400 a year.
- Fitting a water saving device in your cistern can save you 3 litres of water a flush.
- Waste costs money, typically up to 4% of business turnover. Reducing your waste will make your company more profitable.
- Eliminating waste entirely may not always be possible, but by not creating it in the first place reduces costs of raw materials.