During our annual Green Week, we are raising awareness of a different element of our environmental goals and achievements each day. This year, more than ever before, we have been focusing on energy consumption and managing our energy use.
To do this, we set out our commitment to minimise resource use and carbon emissions associated with our activities wherever we can in our Environmental Policy, but to make a real difference to energy usage, we must first understand how and where energy is being used in the business.
As in previous years, we have been monitoring our energy consumption on a monthly basis and assessing the results to check that we are not using more than we expect. To build a better picture and to improve the way we manage energy, we have done a series of ‘energy walk-rounds’, which is just as it sounds: we walk around the premises, identifying various aspects of energy usage, wastage and opportunities for improvement. These have been expertly carried out by our Facilities and Central Services teams in each office on a monthly basis since the start of the year.
Data collected from the walk-rounds includes thing like monitors being left on, use of fans, heaters and other equipment to create an overview of energy consumption for both building management and individual behaviours. Once we have gathered, the data we circulate it to group leaders with the intention of gradually increasing favourable energy behaviours across the business and in this regard we have been quite successful. We rewarded the teams that stood out as demonstrating consistently favourable energy behaviours or have shown significant improvement with (Fairtrade, of course!) chocolates.
For more information on any of the issues raised in this article or on Lyons Davidson’s Environmental Policy, please contact our Environmental Systems Management Co-ordinator Clive Croal by email or by phoning 0117 394 5060.
