The business case
The Waterside Leisure Club was faced with annual energy bills of around £62,000 per year, with associated carbon emissions of 336 tonnes. Given the organisation provides exercise and swimming facilities, unsurprisingly, heating, ventilating, air conditioning (HVAC) and hot water accounted for more than half this figure.
Mark Williams, Managing Director at The Waterside Leisure Club recognised the importance of good energy management and as such had already taken some steps to improve energy efficiency – including the installation of a pool cover - which had led to significant cash and carbon savings. However, the organisation as a whole was relatively new to this area and as such Mark enlisted specialist help from the Carbon Trust.
Recommendations
The Carbon Trust identified a number of energy saving measures which included:
- Introducing an energy strategy and energy policy
- Introducing energy monitoring and targeting
- Revising operating temperatures across the pool, gym and changing rooms
- Switching off hot water generation when not needed
- Upgrading light fittings
- Installing thermal insulation to pipework
- Turning off office equipment when not in use
Introducing an effective energy monitoring and targeting system was identified as a key priority for the Club. Monitoring and targeting is one of the most important aspects of energy management as it enables an organisation and its staff to understand how much energy is being used and where, thereby ensuring that energy saving measures can be tailored to specific operations.
The Carbon Trust recommended that Buckden Marina obtain half hourly electricity metering from their electricity supplier in order to measure energy use in key areas such as the swimming pool, changing rooms and gym. Although it will cost approximately £1,200 to establish a monitoring and targeting system, it is anticipated that annual savings of £2,000 and 10.75 tonnes of carbon dioxide will subsequently be achieved.
Staff awareness
Raising energy awareness among its staff was also a key priority for the Leisure Club. The organisation had no formal energy strategy in place and ran no energy training programmes for staff or management.
Mark Williams of The Waterside Leisure Club: “In order to optimise energy savings, we felt a two prong mode of attack was needed: as well as improving the efficiency of our technical operations, we also wanted to engage staff and ensure energy awareness was high throughout our organisation.
“Maintaining comfortable standards – particularly in relation to heating and hot water – was obviously a priority for us given the nature of the organisation. The Carbon Trust’s recommendations will enable us to ensure that efficiency in these areas, and across the leisure centre as a whole, is optimised without compromising customer comfort.
“We still have some way to go in our energy saving efforts, but we’re really pleased with what we’ve achieved so far.”
Realising the savings
Implementing all prioritised measures will enable Buckden Marina to reduce energy consumption by 15 per cent – saving around £10,000 a year off their energy bill. Although some of the recommendations required investment, the savings generated will result in a payback period of two years. Buckden Marina also expects to cut its annual carbon dioxide emissions by 51 tonnes as a result of advice from the Carbon Trust.
Find out more about our on-site Carbon Surveys (available for businesses in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales).
See carbon saving advice for the hospitality and sport and leisure sectors, or call the Carbon Trust Advice Line on 0800 085 2005.