The Race to Zero – three ambitious campaigns for your organisation to join

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Introduction

In October 2018 the IPCC published a special report highlighting the need for us to stay below 1.5 degrees warming compared to pre-industrial times. Since this announcement, a plethora of campaigns and policies have been put forward across the globe some more pertinent than others.

Recently Germany passed a bill to be coal free by 2038 and nuclear free by 2022. This is hugely positive and sets an example for the rest of the world. The UK has set a legal target to be net zero by 2050.

This said, it can be hard as an organisation or indeed a country to know where to start. This article will evaluate the following three campaigns initiated to tackle climate change and to stay within the 1.5 degree trajectory:

1) UNFCC Race to Zero (Call to join the Climate Ambition Alliance)
2) Business Ambition for 1.5C
3) Science Based Targets (SBTi - the coalition is CDP, WWF, UNGC, WRI)

All three campaigns offer clear guidance in line with scientific research yet they each take a slightly different approach. The Science Based Targets initiative focuses on mitigation (limiting the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted) whereas the UNFCC Race to Zero is centred around adaptation (preparing for the consequences). The Business Ambition for 1.5C provides a call to action for businesses whereas the UNFCC Race to Zero is a space for nation, business, and investor collaboration.

A barrier to all three campaigns is that they are not compulsory. Organisations must opt to sign up. There is no binding law that means all businesses or countries must set targets in line with climate science. However, signing up will ensure you future proof your business.

As more and more stakeholders sign up there is an increased pressure for all of us to follow suit and work towards a future devoid of the climate crisis.

UNFCC Race to Zero (Call to join the Climate Ambition Alliance)

Race To Zero is a global campaign to rally leadership and support for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.

Race to Zero is a call to join the climate change ambition alliance led by Chile,  a collaboration of 114 nations who are determined to follow climate change science and stay within the 1.5-degree trajectory of warming above pre-industrial times.

The alliance focuses on adaptation -  ‘actions taken to minimise the impacts of climate change across individual, local, organisational, and national levels. Essentially a ‘be prepared for the consequences’ approach, with a view to minimise vulnerability and increase resilience.’

The alliance particularly focuses on adaption regarding water, cities and infrastructure. Cities account for 70% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. What’s more 55% of the world’s population live in cities.  

Race to Zero mobilises a coalition of leading net zero initiatives, representing 449 cities, 21 regions, 995 businesses, 38 of the biggest investors, and 505 universities. Collectively these actors accounts for nearly 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions which have set net-zero targets by 2050, in line with climate science.

How to join the race to zero?

You can sign up as a network, supporter or actor by filling in an application form. 

Join the race

This needs to outline your pledge, the plan you have in place, actions taken, a published strategy report, your carbon footprint, any offsetting you may do, future uncertainties and governance arrangements. 

Going through this application form will involve assessing your operations and working out how best to reduce your carbon footprint. Consequently, it is a worthwhile exercise one which has many benefits.

An advantage of joining the UNFCC Race to Zero is membership of an extensive network with useful tools and resources, and participating in best practice and leadership projects in climate change strategy. Joining is completely free and enables your organisation to benchmark against others in the same industry. Sharing ideas and innovation though the alliance can help us combat climate change.

Business Ambition for 1.5C  - SBTi, We Mean Business, UNGC

The Business Ambition for 1.5 is a call to action for businesses across the world to do their bit for climate change. The agreement has been signed by 271 corporate leaders, including representative from Zurich Insurance, Unilever, Tesco and Pepsi Co.

For a business to sign up they must sign this letter promising to either set science based targets in line with 1.5 degree scenarios or make a net zero commitment by 2050 and interim science-based targets.

Science based targets are goals which align with the latest climate science. A company must reduce their carbon footprint emissions by enough to ensure we do not exceed 1.5 degrees of warming.

To set science-based targets you must first calculate your carbon footprint. This can be done using Compare Your Footprint – an online carbon calculator tool. Compare Your Footprint has signed up to the Business Ambition for 1.5C.

Following this, sustainability consultants such as Green Element can help you set science-based target reductions. For scope 1, 2 and 3 this will be a reduction of roughly 46% by 2030. If your businesses scope 3 makes up less than 40% of your overall carbon footprint it does not need to be included in your target.

Interim science-based targets can be in line with a 2-degree trajectory allowing companies more flexibility in the short term but a more vigorous strategy in the long term to reach net zero.

If you have already set up science based targets it is highly recommended that you sign the Business Ambition for 1.5C as you have already done all the hard work. Plus at this stage it is completely free. Read on to learn about the benefits of setting science-based targets.

Science Based Targets initiative
​(SBTi - the coalition is CDP, WWF, UNGC, WRI)

What is the Science Based Targets initiative?

Science Based Targets initiative is a ‘collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), World Resources Institute (WRI), and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and one of the We Mean Business Coalition commitments.’

The initiative verifies targets and publishes them helping to promote achieving goals and encourages others to follow suit. The Science Based Targets initiative provides tools and guidance to organisations wishing to reduce their environmental impact.

To join the initiative costs: ‘USD 4950 (+VAT). This includes two target assessments (companies can choose between one preliminary and one official, or two official validations). Subsequent resubmissions under the target validation service cost USD 2490 (+ applicable VAT) per submission’.

There is also a discount for SMEs (companies with fewer than 500 full time employees). SMEs now only pay $1,000 US dollars to have their science-based targets verified. Plus, they can bypass the initial step of committing to the target and the target validation process. They also have more flexibility in setting targets and don’t have to include scope 3.

Included in the cost of joining the Science Based Targets initiative is having your targets verified by an external body, a wealth of publicity and tools and resources needed to calculate your emission goals in line with the latest science.

Why sign up?

Setting science-based targets will:

  • Save you money – monitoring your operations will highlight areas that can be streamlined. Plus, swapping to renewable energy you will see a cut in your monthly bills.
  • Future-proof your business - there are numerous risks associated with climate change, so it is important to act now to mitigate these. More organisations are signing up and you do not want to be left behind.
  • Create an opportunity to innovate your service offerings - transform your business model by catalysing a transition towards a low carbon economy.
  • Improve your reputation and attract more business opportunities. An increasing number of companies now place a heavy emphasis on environmental factors, which are accounted for in a variety of processes, particularly tendering. SBTs will ensure your business is at the forefront.  Many employees also place much more value working for a more responsible employer, particularly the younger generations, who are going into the workforce.
  • Improve your credibility - demonstrating a commitment towards SBTs will improve your organisation’s stance in the market. An increasing number of organisations are already divesting from those involved in fossil fuel production or consumption.
  • Comply with new regulation - there will undoubtedly be an increasing amount of environmental regulation and mandatory reporting requirements that will arise in the future. Already in 2019, the new SECR requirements were rolled out. Setting SBTs will ensure that your business is well prepared for these.
  • Resilience - adopting more circular principles within your business means more protection from risk – you can’t manage what you don’t measure

How to sign up

There are four key steps in the process.

1. Commit

Your organisation needs to submit a signed commitment letter to demonstrate that you will be taking action.

2. Set the target

A window of 24 months after Step 1 will be given for developing the target.

3. Submit target

A ‘target submission form’ is to be completed after target has been developed. This will be verified.

4. Announce

Once approved, you are good to go – you can showcase the target and communicate it out.

Note – The current focus of SBTs is on corporates. SBTi does not work with cities, governments, public sector organisations, educational institutions, and NGOs at present.

If you’d like to know more about SBTs or would like to be a part of this initiative, please do get in touch with us.

Which campaign should my organisation sign up to?

All three campaigns prove useful exercises, they allow your organisation to monitor and benchmark your entire operations.

For all three the first step is calculating your carbon footprint. For this you can use Compare Your Footprint our online carbon calculator. All you have to do is plug in your data and the rest is taken care for you. Once your report has been generated, you’ll be able  to set the appropriate targets, goals and pledges for you to embark upon your journey on the path to net zero.

Setting the goals and targets will be the same for the Science Based Targets initiative and Business Ambition for 1.5C.  Consequently, after you set your science-based targets it is worthwhile signing up to the Business Ambition for 1.5C. There is no extra cost to this, and it will greatly enhance your public profile. What is more, signing up to both initiatives will promote staying within the 1.5C trajectory among global corporates, encouraging others to follow suit.  If we are to meet our global climate change targets it is paramount that businesses actively set goals and lead the way. A great way to do this is to join forces and sign up to campaigns like these.

The UNFCC Race to Zero (Call to join the Climate Ambition Alliance) differs slightly from both for the Science Based Targets initiative and Business Ambition for 1.5C, in so far as it has a bigger scope which focuses on not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions but putting in place initiatives to protect us from the changes that will take place due to a warming climate. For example, The UNFCC Race to Zero focuses on long term decision making and governance and encourages applicants to consider how their targets link to political declarations and actions. 

If you need help measuring your carbon footprint, get in touch with us today.

Access other helpful resources below to help you enter the race to net zero:

READ: Business Road Map to Net Zero
DOWNLOAD: How Green is your SME?

How Green is your SME?

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In the last 170 years, we have added 2.4 trillion tons of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, whereby half of this amount has been added in the previous 30 - 35 years (The World Counts, 2020). As a result, governments and business are being placed under increasing pressure to introduce and implement sustainable practices that cut down total greenhouse gasses.

One of the most effective ways for an enterprise to become more sustainable is by monitoring and minimising its carbon footprint and the emissions it releases. But this is not always a simple exercise for Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Despite 88% of SME CEOs valuing sustainability, 70% struggle to embed the practices and strategies to be greener.

The University of Edinburgh Business School has published this white paper specifically for SMEs to include several different drivers influencing businesses call to reduce their carbon footprint and inevitably become more environmentally friendly.

Contents:

  • What is Sustainability?
  • What is the current problem?
  • The benefits of understanding your Carbon Footprint
  • Why is it important to solve this problem?
  • Barriers to implement sustainability policies
  • Why your stakeholders need you to be more sustainable
  • Being sustainable can benefit your company financially
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10 actions to reduce carbon emissions from your business

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Businesses however big or small can reduce their carbon emissions, there are many changes that can be made to business operations in order to do this.

We have compiled 10 actions you can take to significantly reduce carbon emissions.

 

1. Switch to renewable energy backed by REGO certificates

green energy

REGOs – or Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin assures that the energy supplied to you is 100% renewably sourced.

The GHG Protocol market-based calculation method to calculate your carbon footprint focuses on the fuel mix of your electricity supplier. Consequently, if you use renewable energy you will reduce carbon emissions for electricity to zero!

2. Reduce carbon emissions from air travel

air travel

Increasingly, even before the Coronavirus crisis companies were opting to travel less for business. Instead, opting to use popular software programmes such as Zoom and Skype to conduct meetings. Now it seems to be the new normal.

If you have to travel, consider travelling by train domestically to reduce emissions from air travel. However, if you have to travel by plane, investigate the flight class that is being used. Using the 2019 UK Defra Carbon Factors for a long haul flight, the emissions per passenger km for first class travel are 0.60kg CO2e, for business class 0.43kg CO2e and for economy 0.15kg CO2e. This is calculated by the amount of space taken up per seat on the plane.

This means a one-way flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK airport will have a carbon footprint per person of 3684kg CO2e for first class, 2671kg CO2e for business class and 921kg CO2e for economy class. For those undertaking several trips per year, a switch from business to economy class will mean a reduction in comfort but also a significant difference in the associated emissions.

3. Reduce carbon emissions from road travel

electric car

If you have your own fleet install a telematics system (GPS tracking) to allow the collection of data that can help analyse your fleet’s usage and make your fleet more efficient. Analysis of telematics data could inform criteria for future purchase/leasing decisions.

Choosing more fuel efficient or alternatively fuelled vehicles such as alternative fuel or electric vehicles. Government grants are available to subsidise the cost of new low-emissions vehicles. As with the cost of alternative fuel or electric vehicles the government also offers subsidies to those installing charge points at home.

It is worthwhile engaging with The Energy Saving Trust (EST) who can carry out several different reviews to help you make your fleet greener and more efficient. EST’s Green Fleet Reviews are usually available at no cost for most private and public sector organisations in England as they are paid for by the UK Government to promote energy efficiency goals. Green Fleet Reviews identify opportunities to reduce emissions, fuel costs and expenditure.

Additional, try raining drivers in ecodriving techniques to save fuel and reduce emissions. In summary this consists of teaching drivers how to drive with more anticipation of road conditions and more consideration of fuel economy.

4. Increase the efficiency of your office lighting

Changing lighting throughout a building to more energy efficient options such as LED can make a big difference and is a quick win with long lasting effects. Ensure that natural light is used when adequate, many offices are artificially lit unnecessarily. Natural light saves energy and has been found to improve sleep and avoid health risks associated with unnatural lighting such as an elevated stress response.

Solar shading and transparent film can be used to help to minimise glare and excessive heat. There is also an array of technology available, such as motion sensors which will automatically ensure lights are switched off if rooms are not in use. Dimmable lights are another method to ensure lights aren’t at their brightest maximum when not required.

5. Reduce energy usage in your data centre and comms room

Set cooling systems to a higher temperature to save energy and increase cooling capacity

Often data centres are set around 19°C resulting in unnecessary energy usage. Data centres can save 8% to 9% in energy costs for every 1°C increase in server inlet temperature. 23°C is the optimum temperature for many data centres to save energy without risking overheating.

Set up hot and cool isles

Typically, only 40% of the electricity consumed in a data centre is used by IT equipment. A staggering 60% is consumed by the server room infrastructure: air conditioning, lighting, UPS systems, etc. Reorganising your aisles into either hot or cold air containment systems could save you 20% to 40% in annual cooling system energy.

Install plastic curtains

The most simple and cost-effective hot air containment system we found is used by Google and involves placing metal-end caps on rows and vinyl plastic curtains, such as those used in meat lockers. This prevents air of different temperatures from mixing, whilst maintaining ease of access and flexible rack layouts.

 

6. Optimise your heating and cooling systems

  • Implement temperature controls, ensuring heating and air conditioning is timed correctly and appropriate for the outside air temperature. This can minimise over heating or cooling. Lots of energy can be wasted if heating and cooling systems are competing, this can be avoided by installing a Building Management system. Additionally, make sure energy isn’t wasted by excessive heating/cooling overnight.
  • Ensure staff are trained on local heating and cooling units to avoid dramatic swings in temperature or take away the capability to manually adjust the thermostat and have them centrally controlled.
  • Make sure your boiler is regularly serviced to ensure it is operating as efficiently as possible. In addition, regularly clean fins on heating and cooling appliances.
  • Consider installing window film, that allows light in but reflects the heat back out during the summer. This gives you the benefit of natural light without causing increased need for air conditioning. This film can be reversed in winter so that heat is reflected into room.

7. Reduce, reuse, recycle

Thinking about sustainable procurement can act as an exercise to engage employees with ways they can reduce consumption of items such as water, paper, food and drink, laptops, phones and packaging. Manufacture and transport of all these items has an associated carbon footprint, therefore, minimising consumption reduces carbon emissions.

Purchasing recycled paper or refurbished phones and IT equipment is an easy way to reduce your businesses carbon footprint. Buying recycled paper instead of primary production reduces carbon emissions as stipulated by the GHG Protocol. If your business has a large supply chain, then it is particularly important to ensure that sustainability is fed right through.

8. Reduce carbon emissions from food and food waste

vegetables

  • Food takes a significant amount of energy to produce and transport. Therefore, food waste can be source of carbon, particularly if your business has a canteen serving fresh food daily. Check with your waste contractor if food waste collection is possible.
  • Ensure that kitchen staff are all trained and aware of the issue, and provide proper facilities, in kitchens, dining rooms and canteens for employees to dispose of any food waste they may have. Additionally, it is worth looking into food waste apps like Olio for example.
  • If your business has a canteen or café it is worth making sure you have vegan and vegetarian options available to encourage staff to choose to eat food with fewer associated carbon emissions. 18% of global emissions are associated with livestock agriculture (FAO Report). Providing employees with good vegan and vegetarian food options can help to reduce your businesses carbon footprint.

9. Minimise single use plastic

By introducing sustainable procurement policies as suggested above, your plastic waste will be reduced. The next step to reduce plastic is to look as removing all (or as many as possible), single use plastic items from your business model.

Be cautious of biodegradable or compostable materials as many of them can’t be combined with food waste. Here is a more in-depth article outlining suitable alternatives to single use plastics.

 

10. Print as minimally as possible

Many offices consume vast amounts of paper. Take action to cut down paper usage, especially by reducing printing, and digitising (e.g. online contract signings, avoiding printing emails, presentations and annotating on screen instead). Energy is used to manufacture and transport paper, you can reduce carbon emissions by minimising paper consumption.

If printing is required, ensure double sided printing is set as a default. Having ‘follow me’ printing services across office printers can also help cut down any accidental or unnecessary printing as options can be altered at the time of printing.

Further guidance…

To hear more about how you can reduce your carbon footprint sign up for a demo of CompareYourFootprint now. Alternatively you can register and start using CompareYourFootprint today!

 

FREE WEBINAR 19 May 2020 4pm (UTC+1): The Essential Guide to Greenhouse Gas Inventories

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At Compare Your Footprint, we want to help as many businesses as ever to go ‘green’.
 
This is why we offered a free webinar for businesses looking to be guided through the carbon emission reporting inventories, as defined by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, with a specific focus on the corporate value chain and Scope 3 categories.
 
The presenter was Emma Littlewood, Co-founder of Compare Your Footprint and Senior Sustainability Analyst for Green Element.
 

Get in touch for a copy of the webinar recording

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Home gadgets to help you lead a greener lifestyle

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We are now more aware of our impact on the environment than ever before. Rising levels of emissions, non-biodegradable products and consumerist lifestyles are all contributing to the problems our world now faces. Luckily, innovation is on the rise and new eco-friendly products are being developed, providing the same functionality as their non-eco counterparts with the benefit of being friendlier to dispose of. Here we suggest 3 home gadgets than can help you lead a greener lifestyle and therefore have a positive impact on the world.

Smart Strip Power Strip
Leaving devices plugged in and on standby is a silent driver of electricity bills. A wireless router on standby uses around £20 of electricity each year; an alarm clock uses £6; and a laser printer uses £18. In busy days like these, it’s a bind and an inconvenience to go around switching these off and on repeatedly, so having a smart strip can really help. Smart strips tend to have three main parts: the control outlet, where you plug in the main device in (such as a TV); the auto-off outlets, where you plug in other devices (such as your DVD player or games console); and constant outlets, which function as normal sockets. Using these can save around £80 a year.

http://www.belkin.com/-conserve/smartav/

Nest Thermostat
Your thermostat is one of the most important pieces when it comes to keeping your carbon as low as possible, and the Nest thermostat makes that job as easy as possible. Learning from your habits over time, the thermostat can help you cut 20 to 30 percent of your energy consumption from heating. You can also remotely control the device from your smartphone over Wi-Fi, as well as seeing when heating and cooling is used the most to better help you reduce your energy bill.

https://store.nest.com/product/thermostat/

Phillips Hue
Phillips Hue is a revolutionary lightbulb system that lets you control your lights around the house from your mobile device. The bulbs themselves have impressive energy-saving characteristics, using LED technology to minimise their energy use. Moreover, they can be turned on and off from anywhere, meaning that forgetting to turn a light off becomes a thing of the past.

Philips Hue DRM Update Blocks Third-Party Light Bulbs

Incorporating smart devices into your home can be a great way to save energy with very little effort, cost or involvement. We are in the dawn of interconnected devices which work to help us, not the other way around. Look in to investing into some of these devices, as they could save your wallet and the planet in the long run.

How to Involve Employees in Company Sustainability Practices

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In the business world, sustainability continues to be a growing concern among companies big and small – from a few operational changes, green initiatives can have a big impact on the bottom line, and present a good incentive for customers and clients to choose one company over another. One of the biggest “hidden” impacts of sustainable business practices, that some often don’t see, is the positive effects it can have on employee morale. By bringing increased motivation, job satisfaction, and camaraderie between employees, working sustainability into a company’s culture can boost the attitudes of workers. In essence – it feels good to do good, and to work somewhere that does good.

Before employees can benefit from sustainability-focused operations, however, they need to be engaged with it. There are a variety of practices that can help to do this, and below are five key steps and tips that will get employees involved with green practices.

Set long-term purpose

Before any large-scale practices are implemented, employees like to understand why. Why does the company want all these new practices introduced? What do they want to achieve? Leaders should discuss this question and pass answers on to employees. For the best effect, try to make a broad social statement about improving the office, company, local area, or the environment. Whatever it is, make it the focus of your plans going forward. By giving workers a larger goal to work towards, be it quantitative (reduce waste across the company by 50%) or qualitative (reduce the impact of office operations on the environment), you can give them an emotional reason to engage in the process, and a sense of satisfaction at every step that works towards this goal. By thinking about the social purpose of the initiative, and the company, employees can feel they’re contributing to that higher-level, collaborative effort, and feel meaning in everything that they do.

Make employees part of the process

By creating dialogue with your employees throughout the process of introducing and implementing sustainable practices, you can help the workforce to become more invested in the process. Discuss with employees their individual attitudes to green initiatives, and understand what would help them to get involved. Ultimately, only your employees can tell you for sure what they want. Be sure to feedback regularly to employees with statistics, encouragement, and congratulations, and keep dialogue open to any suggestions or thoughts.

Encourage healthy competition

With any set of goals and initiatives, the most effective way to encourage involvement is with a bit of healthy competition. Many sustainability indicators are easy to quantify – carbon emissions, waste, and paper use are three examples – and comparing the efforts of teams of employees against each other can be a great way to acknowledge success and encourage improvement. Additionally, consider inviting teams of employees to submit plans for new initiatives or sustainability projects, enacting or funding the best ideas submitted.

Everyone should be a champion

The key to implementing sustainable practices is to have leaders supervising the rollout. However, it is not enough to just have these sustainability leads at the top of the chain – every employee must be encouraged to champion the sustainability efforts, at every level of the company. For example, retailer Marks and Spencer has sustainability leads in every store that ensure messages on sustainability are delivered to all employees not from higher-ups, but from someone they know well already. Encourage every employee to be a champion of sustainability values, so everyone is surrounded by excitement around the initiative.

Understand different attitudes & engage differently

This is an often-overlooked aspect, and one that’s very important to maximise employee engagement and satisfaction. While there are many methods that will work for a large number of employees, there is a wide range of attitudes that people can have, and a wide range of different types of people who will respond differently to any efforts. Some employees will jump head-first into the new processes, and others will find it difficult to change their established behaviour. By implementing a process involving multiple different employee engagement methods, you can see what works best for your employees. Some companies might use surveys and focus groups among employees to establish new ideas, and others might use competitions or open discussions. Furthermore, some employees respond better to a competitive approach to implementing sustainable practices, and others will be happier if the company is treated as one entity. Ultimately, you need to find what works for your company and for your employees – if what you’re doing doesn’t seem to be engaging employees well enough, try another approach.

By involving employees in your company’s sustainability practices, you can help to implement a plan that works both for the company and for its workers. By doing this, you can not only improve your company’s bottom line and reduce its environmental impact, but boost employee morale and attachment, too.

A great way to measure the positive impact of your company’s sustainability practices is by analysing your carbon footprint. This information on carbon emissions can be used to feed back to your employees, congratulate achievement, and encourage further improvement. If you have any questions about Carbon Benchmarking, or would like to speak to us about your organisation’s carbon emissions, get in touch via our contacts page.

5 Quick Tips to Reduce Your Businesses Energy Use

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It’s that time of the year again. A new year, a new you, or at least a new company energy efficiency policy. With the new American administration coming in on the 20th of January, and the most likely eminent likely dissolution of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, we all need to do our bit to lower carbon emissions and save those cute polar bears from, well, the ice melting from beneath their feet, and them subsequently going extinct. Oh yeah, it can also save us all some money too!

Tip 1# Office equipment: Yes, it’s as exciting as it sounds

  • This is the easiest tip in theory and the hardest in practice. It’s as simple as only switching on what you need, and enabling energy saving features on all equipment that boost them. By turning off computer monitors when you leave, you can save £37 per year per 17” monitor (screen savers rarely save energy). (Source: Practical energy efficiency advice for businesses, smart power: npower)
  • A photocopy machine is a key money grabbing utensil when left ignored. You could be wasting £194 a year, simply by leaving a photocopier on at all times. By keeping it outside of air conditioned spaces, you could save £200 per year in warming up costs. Simply by photocopying in batches, you could save £190 per year, as they need to warm up enough in order to work. (Source: Practical energy efficiency advice for businesses, smart power: npower)

Tip 2# Buildings and heating

  • Now the first one here is the most obvious; if you’re not using a room, turn the heaters off. Then all you have to do is close doors between heated and unheated areas, and you’re saving £40-80 on a £800 heating bill.
  • In the summer, either keep the air-conditioning off or close the windows. Leaving the windows open allows warmer air into the room, in which the air-con is valiantly trying to keep the room cool. This will put unnecessary stress on the air-con, and actively have the opposite effect on cooling the room down.
  • For every 1˚C of extra heat, your heating bill increases by around 8%. For offices 20ºC for is an acceptable temperature.

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Tip 3# And the Lord said “let there be a little less light”

  • Check lighting levels, as you may have more light than you need. Removing an unnecessary 100-watt incandescent bulb could save about £20 a year. Even turning off unnecessary lights could save you running costs of £23 per year for a 58-watt fluorescent fitting. (Source: Practical energy efficiency advice for businesses, smart power: npower)
  • Standard incandescent lamps are inefficient, generating 10%light and 90% heat. Swapping a 20-watt low-energy lamp in place of a 100-watt incandescent lamp could save you around £16 a year, per bulb.

Tip 4# Think before you print

  • This is one of those that is actually quite well known, but little thought of rule. Do you really need to print a one lined email? You can save paper, toner/ink and energy by not printing emails and documents that aren’t strictly necessary. The energy alone could be worth around £6 or more per year, per printer.
  • Printing on both sides, whenever possible, can save up to 40% of printing costs. That’s if you always print one-sided at least.
  • In an ever advancing technological age, there are more ways than ever to save paper. Use online questionnaire forms, share documents via google sheets, use better, more organised information systems, so people can easily find the documents they are looking for.
  • Remember not all inks are created equal. In an infographic created by Pixartprinting , it shows that Garamond and Times New Roman are the most efficient fonts. Comic Sans and Helvetica are the least — they use almost 1/3 more ink to print. There are even new Eco fonts available now, for example, Ryman Stationery, an office supply chain store in the UK, has created what they call “the world’s most beautiful sustainable font.” Ryman Eco is a free font that uses 33% less ink than standard fonts and looks gorgeous doing it. (Source: http://www.companyfolders.com/blog/5-ink-saving-eco-fonts)

Tip 5# The future could be in microgeneration

  • Businesses are now being encouraged by the UK government to invest in small-scale electricity generation – from mini wind turbines and solar panels to tapping energy from on-site hydro sources and installing anaerobic digestion units.
  • The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme became effective on 1 April 2010. FIT is a ‘clean energy cash-back’ scheme designed to incentivise businesses and households to invest in small-scale renewable technologies in return for guaranteed payments.
  • Plummeting solar costs mean that solar panels are still cost effective and will deliver earnings and savings of around £8,080 over 20 years on average. From 2016, typical return on investment for solar panels is a healthy 4.8% over 20 years. They make the money back from installation costs in energy savings after 6-9 years (which in Northern England is leaning more towards the 9).

When you have a bit of downtime, want some light bedtime reading, or you have 10 minutes to kill on a toilet break, here’s a complete guide from npower on how to save both the money in your pocket and Gaia as a whole:
http://www.npower.com/idc/groups/wcms_content/@wcms/@resi/documents/digitalassets/energy_efficiency_guide.pdf

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