Economic and Ecological Efficiency – The Best Business Energy Solutions

Ecological awareness has indubitably become the main strategic aspect to any current business innovations. Ensuring that your company considers conversational practice within day to day systems is an increasingly altruistic business requirement for UK enterprises.

The best business energy solutions are likely to be both economically and ecologically rewarding. Mistakenly considered as a time consuming and costly process, improving your company’s carbon footprint is typically a straightforward and potentially lucrative operational decision.

Whether your enterprise is a multi-national corporation or a SME, economic and ecological efficiency holds the potential to benefit you at a scale relative to the size of your organisation.

Depending on your energy consumption, businesses are required to follow the CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) Energy Efficiency Scheme. The scheme was instigated to encourage the implementation of environmentally friendly practices, in an attempt to meet the government’s proposal to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, from 1990 levels.

There are a number of systems in place to encourage the best business energy solutions. Defra suggests that monitoring your actual energy consumption can provide companies with a useful insight into their expenditure. This observation will often highlight periods where excess resources are being wasted, at a detriment to both the environment and your company accounts.

British Gas suggests that ‘companies typically spend as much as 46% of their energy usage outside of business hours.’ To tackle this, their Business Energy Insight™ service enables customers not only to monitor and manage their ongoing outlay on resources, but offers a dedicated account executive to give guidance on reducing your usage.

In addition, some of the best business energy solutions to reducing environmental impacts and frivolous outlay can be executed by making small but effective modifications to everyday practises. Though implementing policies within your workplace for corporations will ensure consistency throughout an organisation, setting simple standards can make colossal conservational and cost progressions.

Promotion of eco-friendly routines and procedures can save money and encourage ecological improvements. The cost to power a computer for 24 hours can be cut by £35 a year, per computer, if workers are encouraged to turn off monitors and processors in the evening at both the switch and the socket. In an IT or office based workplace with eight to ten computers this could save your business in the region of £300 per annum.

Wasting heat is another downfall of UK businesses. Eager to use modern concepts such as air conditioning and heating, draining money and resources, basic resolutions such as opening and shutting doors and windows are forgotten.

Turning your thermostat down one or two degrees, and shutting interconnecting internal doors and any windows during the winter months can potentially save your business up to eight per cent of your typical energy bill. Likewise, opening windows to encourage air flow during spring and summer months is a free way to create a comfortable, cool working climate.

As a business, if you are concerned with the ins and outs of environmental legislation and want to guarantee that your organisation makes all efforts to go green, an Environmental Management System (EMS) could be the answer.

Depending on your industry there are numerous EMS programmes available, suited to varying lines of work, however Defra recommend that businesses choose one of the three categories ‘that are accredited by the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS)’.

The Acorn Inspection Scheme, developed by IEMA, and the Seren Scheme, by Tarian, both offer a manageable six step implementation process, ideal for improving environmental impacts within smaller businesses. Upon completion, companies will be inspected and accredited with a certificate to confirm their compliance with British Standard (BS) 8555.

Though BS 8555 is ideal for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the ISO 14001 is the most common EMS standard in the UK. As the international standard for EMSs, the ISO 14001 is described by Defra as a tool to: ‘help organisations systematically identify, evaluate, manage and improve the environmental impacts of their activities, products and services.’

Enhancing your business with green policies and promises can also attract new likeminded custom, causing an increase in capital. Companies looking to enrich their ethical standards by going above and beyond legal requirements should consider their concern for conservation as a strong Unique Selling Point (USP) when marketing any products or services.

Start your ecological journey by making rudimentary corrections to resource management within your working environment. From there, speak with your supplier regarding the best business energy efficiency solutions.