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It is estimated that 60% of the energy used by office equipment in the UK could be wasted due to equipment being left on unnecessarily and standby facilities being absent or disabled.
This amounts to a staggering £180 million across the UK every year.
The majority of this energy use comes from large numbers of small pieces of equipment. Realising the savings available requires the active participation and cooperation of all staff using this equipment. Find out how much energy is used overnight to understand scale of the problem. Raise the issue in different ways, as people will be motivated by different information. For instance, turning off unnecessary equipment and enabling standby features will:
- Save the company money – likely to be attractive to management
- Reduce any over heating problems – likely to be attractive to staff
- Reduce carbon dioxide emissions and help combat climate change – attractive to staff and good for company reputation.
Getting information out to everyone should be a regular activity. This should include:
- current energy use and related environmental issues
- energy saving targets and the benefits to staff of achieving these
- planned activities for meeting these targets
Keep the initiative going through the use of posters, newsletters and staff suggestions schemes.
Remember to keep everyone informed of the progress that is being made.
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