Part 1: Save energy and money at work – appliances

As it's Big Energy Saving Week (a joint project between Citizens Advice, Government, Energy Saving Trust, Age UK  and other voluntary and charitable organisations) 20-24 October 2014 , I thought I'd write some energy-saving posts. In the first one of this series, I offer you some simple tips to help you and your company save energy and cut costs relating to appliances.

Appliances

1. Don’t leave PCs and electrical equipment on overnight. Switching off one computer and flat panel monitor when not in use could save £100 each year. Computers should also be shut down if you leave the office for an hour or more. Always switch off computer screens too, and don't leave them on standby.
2. Switch off photocopiers, printers, projectors, water coolers, vending machines and any other electrical equipment at night and weekends using, either manually or by using time switches.
3. Set your printers and photocopiers to use double sided printing to halve your paper costs, reduce waste and save energy.
4. Use automatic power-saving features on IT equipment. ‘Screen Savers’ don’t save energy so set your PC to automatically put the monitor into standby mode after a certain time period.
5. Clearly label equipment and switches so it's easy to switch something on and off.
6. Save time, energy, water and money by only filling the kettle with the amount of water you need. If you're making a round of tea, ask your colleagues if they want a drink before filling the kettle. This means the kettle will boil faster and use less energy.
7. If buying new appliances buy the most energy efficient models by looking at their energy labels. Look for the ‘A’ rating on kitchen and other household appliances, the ‘Energy Star’ logo on IT equipment and the ‘Energy Saving Recommended’ logo.

Further reading

1. Carbon Trust has a very useful website which includes lots of office energy-saving information and useful resources, such as posters, which you can use to help get your colleagues to save energy in your office or factory. The posters look good but they have coloured backgrounds which means they could use up quite a lot of toner.
2. Energy Saving Trust – great website with lots of advice, plus you can sign up to Energywire, their monthly email newsletter with news, advice and competitions
3. Free eco-friendly font uses a third less ink

4. Eco-friendly stationery for the green business

 Photo: Jim Whimpey