Energy

To help you accurately monitor your energy use, swap your current electricity meter to a smart meter. Your organisation will be able to easily track and record your energy use, revealing where to take money and energy saving action.

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For example, you may be able to easily pinpoint appliances and habits that are draining the most energy and quickly make a difference by swapping your 15 year old fridge for a more energy efficient one, saving money in the long run.

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One simple thing you can do to go green is to go for a 100% green energy tariff, it can help save the planet and save you money. Most energy suppliers now offer green tariffs and there are also a number of green-energy only suppliers.

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Carry out a simple audit of your building to help you identify the most effective options of energy efficiency improvements and take some steps to improve energy efficiency.

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There are a range of low cost measures you can make as well as more expensive improvements that you could seek funding for.

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Changing the way in which people in the building use energy and controls can also make a big impact on energy use.

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Practical questions you may want to ask include:

• Insulation in walls, floor and ceiling - check your eligibility for government support
• Draughtproofing windows and doors - is heat and money being lost through draughty windows?
• Do heating and air conditioning run simultaneously?
• Do you have timers to control your heating and is it switched off during hotter months?
• Do you heat or cool down only where is needed in the building? - are other radiators etc turned off when not being used?
• Do you turn off devices and electronics when they are not being used?
• Do you regularly get your water heater serviced?
• Do you only heat water when it is needed?

There is a lot to consider before installing your own energy system, but it will save your organisation money on energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint. Technology and access to air source heat pump, solar panel and battery installation is improving every day and there are numerous opportunities for funding across our region.

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Look into local community energy schemes that you may be able to invest and link into, allowing you to work with your community and gain access to clean energy at affordable prices.

Utilise windows and place desks in areas where the sunlight can be utilised the best - turn off the lights whenever you can especially when leaving less-used areas such as kitchens and meeting rooms.

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Don't leave electrical items, such as TVs and microwaves, on standby as this wastes electricity. Make sure to power off your laptop or PC if you won't be using it for over 20 minutes.

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Consider new ways you and your team could use electrical items, for example:

• boil your office kettle less by using a vacuum flask to store hot water or only boil what you need
• only run the dishwasher when it is full
• where you can - use low energy or eco modes on appliances
• when buying new IT or other equipment consider the energy efficiency rating
• don't plug your laptop in when you are working, use up the battery and then recharge it - this will save energy and prolong the life of your laptop battery.

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Changing your lighting to LED or energy efficient bulbs will help reduce your carbon emissions and waste as they use less energy and last longer than older alternatives.

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It's a very simple and easy win when making your office greener.

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Consider the energy you may be losing through windows and doors that aren't properly sealed or insulated.

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First, identify where the draught is coming from and what is causing it. Then you could consider some of the following options:

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• consider upgrading your window glazing
• install cheaper secondary glazing
• seal your windows and doors with draught excluder strips, tape or sealant
• hang thick curtains and close when cold or dark

Encourage staff to green their home workspace in a variety of different ways such as using natural light, energy efficient heaters rather than using their central heating, introducing plants, LED light bulbs, remembering to turn off equipment when not in use.

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Encourage every team member to carry out some actions to green their home working and to share what they've done to encourage others.

There are lots of way you can take steps to reduce your digital carbon footprint.

• Use a more sustainable search engine. Ecosia plants a tree every time a search is made so why not use this greener alternative.
• Don't use search engines as a way to reach regularly used websites - add them to your favourites or start typing in the name of the website into the web browser and it will find it from previous searches which use less energy.
• Generative AI tools have a big carbon footprint - don't just use these because they're trendy, make sure you factor in their environmental impact when assessing if they're the right fit for your organisation.
• Download and deleting music and videos has a smaller carbon footprint than livestreaming them.
• Have a clear out of your emails, files and folders, as the more you are storing (especially on the Cloud) the more energy you are using.

Did you know sending an email uses 4g of carbon? Reduce your carbon impact by only sending emails that are necessary, unsubscribe from unnecessary mailing lists, and have a spring clean of your inbox to delete unneeded items which otherwise use energy sitting on your email server.

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If you can, contact colleagues and share documents using other comms systems such as Slack/ Teams/ Google docs. If you do need to send an email make sure to include links rather than attachments as this reduces the carbon footprint.

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Finally you can use alternative email providers that are more sustainable. There are loads of different providers you could use which are sustainable - have a look at the link below for suggestions.

Lots of schemes now offer to offset your carbon emissions through funding sustainability projects or protecting nature. However, these schemes can be flawed. This might be because their claims are exaggerated, or because they're too short-term to make a real difference. Offsetting should always be secondary to actually reducing emissions, and you should always research the claims made by offsetting companies.

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You could also consider funding environmental projects closer to home, so that you're benefitting your local community. Some businesses are now even turning to the local voluntary sector, in order to provide the funding needed for environmental charities to sustain their work.