How to keep your Business Energy Efficient

Developing state of the art software for your business certainly helps you to succeed in a crowded market place. However, it's also important to pay attention to an aspect of running your business that may not seem to be as cutting edge, but is equally important, from a financial and reputational point of view. Maintaining the energy efficiency of your business is essential, in order to optimise your budgets and ensure that you contribute to the government's energy efficiency targets, thereby helping to protect the environment.

Wednesday 3 October 2018

How to keep your Business Energy Efficient

Developing state of the art software for your business certainly helps you to succeed in a crowded market place. However, it's also important to pay attention to an aspect of running your business that may not seem to be as cutting edge, but is equally important, from a financial and reputational point of view. Maintaining the energy efficiency of your business is essential, in order to optimise your budgets and ensure that you contribute to the government's energy efficiency targets, thereby helping to protect the environment.

Think carefully about how the actions of your employees, and the strategies and practices that you have in place, can impact the amount of energy that your business uses.

Understand the current energy efficiency levels of your premises

Energy efficiency ratings are becoming increasingly important for any business. As the experts at EPC For You recently state “with the governments shifting targets on MEES and their 2050 target deal line of eliminating carbon emissions to almost zero, getting an A grade on EPC is going to become increasingly relevant.”

The minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) mean that anyone renting out a commercial premises could face severe financial penalties if the premises are non-compliant. Aside from potential MEES concerns, it pays for any business to have an EPC survey carried out. The results of this survey not only provide a current rating for your premises, they also provide you with useful energy efficiency advice. Most importantly, you understand the current energy efficiency levels for your premises and can start to make improvements accordingly.

Be smart in the digital space

If you are looking to develop software for your business, you already recognise the importance of the digital world. However, if you are not careful about how you use digital hardware and software, it can be damaging to your energy efficiency. Here are some simple things to think about.

Turn off the business Wi-Fi when its not in use. Routers use the same amount of power whether anyone is online or not.
Preserve battery life for business smartphones by ensuring that people know to keep the charge at 50% as a constant and to not let the charge fall to zero.
Do not upgrade mobile devices as a matter of course; base the decision on business need. It takes a lot of energy to produce new handsets all the time. If you do upgrade laptops and smartphones for your business, make sure that you recycle the old ones. You can do this safely, without compromising secure data.
Encourage all employees to switch off devices at the wall and not leave them of standby.

Install motion sensors in your premises

No matter how many times people are told to turn off the lights when they are not in use, there is still a chance they will forget. It may cost a significant amount of money to install motion sensors in your business premises, but you will get a good return on your investment. Lights will automatically switch off if no-one is in the room, thereby preventing energy wastage and reducing costs.

You may also want to think about adopting practices which reduce the need for artificial lighting in the first place, such as using light coloured décor and making sure that window blinds remain open as much as possible.

Pay attention to your communications

As someone who recognises how beneficial digital developments can be to a business, you probably relish the opportunity to use the resources at your disposal to communicate with employees. These communications are essential if you want to improve energy efficiency in your premises. You can make several energy saving changes, but their effectiveness is likely to be compromised if people are not aware of the changes, or of any actions they need to take.

Make sure insulation is effective

You need to ensure that you consider the health and safety of employees when maintaining the temperature in your business premises. If the building is too cold, it can cost a significant amount of money to heat it. It makes sense to ensure that your premises are effectively insulated as this insulation (including an insulated ceiling space) can help to reduce the need for heating.

When you are concentrating on the development of a new service or product, and the associated software required, energy efficiency may not be the first thing on your mind. However, you should never forget how important it is for any viable business to adopt energy efficient practices in its premises. Doing so helps your business to save money and protect the environment, thereby enhancing its reputation.

Wednesday 3 October 2018