How can business save energy and improve energy efficiency?

Energy efficiency can have a big impact on your business’ bottom line and sustainability.

Small businesses are estimated to account for 50% of all UK business-driven emissions. With energy bills and operational costs remaining high, introducing energy efficiency measures at work could save your business money and improve your sustainability credentials.

There are several low-cost and more medium-term ways you can save energy in the workplace.

Quick wins to save energy at work include:

• Reducing heat loss
• Adjusting heating controls
• Switching to LED lighting
• Turning off office equipment

Other ways of improving workplace energy efficiency include:

• Letting in natural light
• Installing lighting sensors
• Maintaining production and manufacturing equipment
• Making sure refrigeration units are working efficiently

Reduce heat loss

Space heating is one of the biggest energy costs in a workplace, accounting for 49% of energy use in a non-domestic building.

Reducing heat loss and preventing draughts can significantly improve energy efficiency and cut the cost of your business’ energy bills. So, it’s a good place to start.

Here are some things you can do to reduce heat loss:

• Identify where draughts are coming from and install draught proofing.
• Make sure unused doors and windows are securely sealed (excluding emergency exits).
• Insulate hot water tanks, boilers and pipes.
• Install heating reflectors behind radiators.
• Keep windows closed when the heating is on.
• Clear any obstructions from radiators.

It’s also important to service boilers, heaters and air conditioning units regularly. This will help prevent future repair bills and keeps costs down in the long term.

Replace lighting with LED bulbs

Switch to energy efficient LED bulbs, strip lights or linear fluorescent lamps if you haven’t already. This can help lower your electricity bills and CO₂ emissions without reducing the quality of light in your workplace.

Let in natural light

Natural light is often overlooked. You might be able to reduce the need for artificial lighting by changing the layout of your workplace.

Example: try moving objects that block windows and positioning desks near natural light sources. It will also create a more pleasant working environment.

You can also try:

• Using lighter paint colours or reflective paint on walls.
• Installing vertical window blinds, which let in more light than horizontal ones when open or closed.
• Relocating workstations to well-lit areas.

Use heating controls

The longer you have your heating on and the higher your set the thermostat, the more expensive your energy bills will be. By using heating controls effectively, you can avoid wasting energy on unnecessary heating.

Follow these steps to make a difference:

• Use smart heating controls or create calendar reminders to update your heating settings with the seasons.
  • Be sure to account for daylight savings, weekends and bank holidays when programming your system.
• Check that air conditioning is turned off in meeting rooms when people leave.
  • Remember: air conditioning in IT server rooms should be set according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
• Check that your thermostats are set correctly. Set the heating in offices to 19°C and cooling at 24°C or higher. The temperature in corridors, storerooms and areas of higher physical activity can be set lower than 19°C.

When setting your thermostat, remember that your workplace must meet the minimum workplace temperature for working indoors.

The Approved Code of Practice on the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations suggests this should normally be at least 16°C. However, it can be 13°C if the work involves a lot of physical effort. There’s no maximum temperature for workplaces.

As an employer, it’s up to you to decide what a reasonable temperature should be in your workplace. You can find more advice from the Health and Safety Executive on how to protect workers from uncomfortable temperatures.

Install lighting sensors

Installing lighting controls and sensors in spaces that don’t need continuous lighting can help cut costs.

According to Energy Efficiency for Business, nearly half of business electricity use occurs outside of standard operating hours. Meeting rooms, storage areas and corridors are often lit unnecessarily.

You could also consider installing a timer switch to ensure lighting is switched off outside working hours.

Encouraging simple behaviour changes for staff can also prevent unnecessary lighting costs.

Example: put up posters encouraging staff to switch off lights before leaving a room.

Check office equipment

Office and work equipment can be high users of energy. Here are a few things you can do to avoid unnecessary energy use:

• Switch from desktop computers to laptops. Laptops typically use around 50 watts of electricity over an eight-hour day compared to 140 watts on average for desktops.
• Encourage staff to avoid standby and turn off monitors and computers at the plug when they leave.
• Optimise the brightness of monitors.
• Activate power saving settings on computers and laptops for all staff.
• Set printers to automatically power down when not in use.
• Make sure communal equipment is turned off at the end of the day.

Kitchen equipment is often overlooked, but it’s an easy place to make savings. Ask yourself:

• Are the seals on refrigerated areas in good condition?
• Do your white goods like fridges and freezers have the best possible energy rating?
• Have you replaced your most-used small appliances like microwaves/kettles/coffee machines with more energy efficient ones recently? 

Switching to more energy efficient appliances can make a difference to your bottom line.

Maintain production and manufacturing equipment

Production and manufacturing equipment are vital to industrial operations, but old or poorly maintained equipment could be drive up costs. Here are some tips that can help with energy efficiency:

• Label switches correctly so staff know which operating machinery they can turn off and how to do it correctly.
• Switch off motors during breaks and lunch.
• Turn off all machines, such as fans, pumps, and conveyors, at the end of the day.
• Optimise the speed of equipment to save on energy consumption.
• Listen for leaks in compressed air pipes.
• Change air filters regularly.

Make sure refrigeration units are working efficiently

For refrigeration to work efficiently, air needs to circulate both inside and out. Here are some simple measures to help refrigeration units work as efficiently as possible:

• Keep doors closed.
• Switch off lights inside cooled spaces when not needed.
• Don’t overfill refrigeration units.
• Defrost freezers regularly.
• Repair door seals.
• Make sure there’s space around refrigeration unit vents to allow air to be drawn in and expelled.

We can help your business when it comes to implementing a Measure Plan Act approach to reducing your business’ carbon footprint. We can also help get your staff on board with our employee engagement tools.

Get in touch to see how we can help you and your business.

Speak to our business team