Environmental awareness has become a core consideration for many firms throughout the developed world, but, quite understandably, financial matters continue to drive policy. What many companies do not realise, however, is that looking after the environment can contribute to the financial success of a business. After all, saving energy means saving money. Below is a selection of tips for saving business energy, provided by uswitchforbusiness.
1. Monitor Energy Usage
Business energy is one of the main types of overhead faced by a company. Once regarded as an uncontrollable expense, the energy used by businesses has been afforded more attention of late. A company’s carbon footprint – the amount of greenhouse gases its activities produce – is something to be applauded or derided, while using more energy means buying more energy.
In order to save money by reducing business electricity and gas, companies should invest in commercial smart meters to monitor energy consumption. Identifying how, when and where energy is used can help businesses formulate viable plans to reduce consumption.
2. Hibernate or Shut Down Computers
It may be the case that computers are becoming more energy efficient, but most office desktops continue to use significant amounts of business electricity. Unfortunately, workers are routinely required to use computers throughout the day and night – even the smallest of companies rely on computers for many tasks. While business electricity supplied to office desktops is a necessary expense, leaving systems on for long periods of time may be wasteful.
When workers are not using their computers, systems should be shut down or at very least set to sleep or hibernate. A system on stand-by uses significantly less energy than one that is up and running but not being used, while a computer in hibernate mode usually conserves even more energy. When systems are to be left unattended for anything longer than half an hour, the computers ought to be shut down.
3. Motion Sensor Lights
Not all office buildings are fully occupied in the sense that all rooms are in use at all times. Sadly, at a considerable environmental and financial cost, many companies ensure that all lights in a building are switched on during working hours.
Reducing reliance on artificial lighting can save significant amounts of business electricity. Exploiting more natural light through windows is obviously the easiest step towards achieving this, but a more effective solution (at least during the winter months) is to isolate lighting by user activity. Using relatively low-cost motion sensors, lights can be set to switch on and turn off when people enter and leave a room, ensuring that electricity is only ever used on lighting when absolutely necessary.
4. Reduce Heat Loss
Energy brokerage firms such as uswitchforbusiness advise companies to reduce heat consumption to save business energy. Although heating is another necessary overhead of running a business, companies need not heat every floor to boiling point – nor should they allow too much heat to escape the building.
Insulating cavity walls and ceilings, installing double or triple glazing, upgrading thermostats and using specialist draught excluders can enable companies to significantly reduce heating throughout a building.
5. Switch Energy Supplier
Although the leading energy companies do not necessarily operate in a competitive market, it is possible for companies to make savings by searching for the most affordable tariffs, which tend to change each year.
Using smart meters to monitor business energy consumption, firms can also make savings by ensuring that they are on the most suitable tariff – one, for example, that offers a reduced rate at certain times of the day or night.
This article/guest post brought to you by uSwitch for Business.
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