Our Earth. Our Environment. Our Climate

Transcription

1 Manage Your Energy Staff S Energy Saver s Handbook Our Earth Our Environment Our Climate MY Manage Your Energy - are you doing Draft Version

2 Going green is easy! Welcome to the Staff Energy Saver s Handbook! We all know that it doesn t take a rocket scientist to recognise that polluting our land, air and water with our rubbish is not a sensible thing to do - both for us and for our children s sake. Being greener doesn t mean we have to give up our modern lifestyles either. Being green is a lot about being less wasteful with what we have such as reusing a plastic carrier bag, walking to work, and switching-off lighting and appliances. Lots of individuals taking small, simple steps are making a big step towards making our environment cleaner and greener. Not only this but each time we use less energy or water we as householders can save hundreds or for the council tens of thousands of pounds a year. Now that s definitely worth thinking about! Doing your bit for the environment is EASY and this short handbook will show you how to save money and help the environment. The handbook is in short self-explanatory sections which will help you save energy in the office. So.read on to find out how you can save energy, save water and start reducing your impact on the environment! GREEN FACT: The Council spends XXXmillion on energy and water per annum, which releases over XXX,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Every week in the Environmental Sustainability Team we receive calls asking us about environmentally friendly products; whether it is really worthwhile recycling paper and are energy efficient light bulbs worth the money? This guide is designed to answer these questions. It is aimed at all staff whether based in an office such as the Civic Centre, Town Hall or one of the depots, or care homes. The basis of the approach taken by the guide is to: minimise wasted energy help the environment save money It is important that the Council and its staff are seen to walk the talk in terms of the environment and sustainability. The Council is a major employer, user of resources and purchaser of goods, and therefore has a major impact on the environment. By leading by example, the Council can influence others in the Borough such as businesses, community groups and residents to change their behaviour and reduce their impact on the environment. We want to make our council cleaner and greener, and therefore a better place to live, work, study and play.

3 Introduction How to use this Guide This short guide aims to compliment the work of the Manage your Energy (MY Energy) staff awareness programme and the work of your Energy Champions. MY Energy is about helping you to make the right choices to make your working environment more energy efficient and more comfortable to work in. Every time you use an appliance that uses energy or indeed other resources please try to consider and apply the following principles in the following as the order of priority: Refuse do you really need it? Could you share the product with another part of the organisation? Reduce everything we buy and use will have consumed energy and resources (as well as cost money), and so a vital first step is to try and reduce the amount you use in your workplace be it, for example, paper, pens or water can you buy in bulk to reduce packaging? Reuse The next step is to reuse resources wherever possible, for example use paper printed only on one side as a scrap notepad. Recycle Put your paper, glass, plastic, and metals in a recycling box or orange bag. However, only when you have exhausted the two previous steps should you think about recycling. Although the recycling process saves both resources and energy, it still consumes both. It is easy to fall into the temptation of thinking that it is OK to use as much paper as you like because it gets recycled anyway. Where do we start? There is no right way to go about greening your workplace. Some things can be achieved with little effort and will cost nothing, while others will take more effort and planning and may require some investment. Only you will know exactly what will work in your office or workplace, and where you should start. You do not have to try everything at once Discuss this with your local Energy Champion and choose which areas or actions to cover first. There may be extra things that your particular office or work place can do which are not covered in here. Go for it and please feedback information on what you re doing to the Environmental Sustainability Team! Here are a number of suggestions that will make implementation easier: Discuss any green workplace issues regularly in your team meetings and with your Energy Champion Get involved with the MY Energy programme and support our events whenever possible. Remember to publicise your successes and to inform your Energy Champion. No matter how big or small it all adds up.

4 Make green workplace issues part of your induction process for new staff and part of all job descriptions, and the staff appraisal process. Saving Energy at Work In our homes and at work most of our energy comes from the burning of fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels has a large contribution towards air pollutants and climate change gases such as CO2 resulting in the increased risk of storms, drought, floods and rising sea levels. The Council consumes nearly XXX million of energy per year, and is leading by example to implement the Manage Your Energy Staff awareness programme to combat climate change and save money. This means that we will see an improvement in energy efficiency of Council buildings, as well as street lighting and housing. GREEN FACT: A monitor left on overnight wastes enough energy to laser print 800 A4 pages In a workplace, energy is used in lighting, heating and air conditioning and for running various types of electrical equipment that we use daily such as PC s, photocopiers and printers. Office equipment alone typically accounts for more than 20% of the energy used in most offices and even up to 70% in some offices. Adopting simple housekeeping measures in the workplace will produce cost savings and energy savings to benefit the environment. Everyone uses energy and can help save it are you doing your bit? your efforts will make a difference!

5 Personal Computers Get Savvy about PCs and Monitors: 1. Switch-off your PC at the wall socket Did you know that if you switch off your PC but is still plugged-in at the wall it still is actually using energy? If left plugged-in, your PC will use 14 watts of electricity which is the same energy needed to light a new energysaving light bulb, or if wasted over the space of one year is enough to brew an amazing 3772 cups of tea! 3772 cups of tea 2. Say So-long to Standby If you switch-off your PC but not your LCD flat screen monitor you will see a little amber-coloured light on your monitor. This means your monitor is still switched-on in standby mode and is needlessly wasting energy. Over the space of one year you will waste enough energy to watch 1825 episodes

6 3. Don t have toast for lunch If you leave a 15in LCD flat screen monitor on over a 1 hour lunch break you waste enough energy to toast one slice of bread. Over one year, that s over 264 slices of toast. Personal Computers some simple tips Don t power your computer system up until you really need it a personal computer uses about one second of running-time energy when starting up. It is far more cost effective to turn it off when not in use. Switch off your PC system over lunch and whenever the you are away from your desk for any length of time computer manufacturers have stated that you can switch off up to three times a day without reducing the lifetime of the computer. Turn off your screen when you re not using it screens are the biggest consumer of energy in the computer monitors use 10% of energy when computer is on stand-by but use almost nothing when switched off at the front.. Printers

7 Switch it off overnight and if possible when not in use. Even standby consumes energy and costs you money. Replacing your printer? look for good energy efficient ratings and features such as printing in draft mode. Photocopiers Where possible communicate by instead of paper. Make sure you need a printed copy before you photocopy the document Turn the photocopier off at the power point at the end of the working day and during periods of inactivity. If the machine is in a very humid environment, this may not work well. In that case, the options are to turn the photocopier off at the machine and not the power point, or turn the heating elements back on for some time before copying at the start of the working day Set low power and off mode default times to the lowest available settings that suit your purposes Copy double-sided whenever you can Use paper with the highest recycled content the manufacturer or supplier will recommend for your printer Use recycled or refilled toner and ink cartridges When shopping for new appliances at work or at home always look for the energy saving recommended logo. It s your guarantee that the product will save energy, cost less to run and help the environment. GREEN FACT: A photocopier left on overnight wastes enough energy to make 5,300 A4 copies. Every hour less you have it switched on saves 0.5kg of carbon dioxide a week.

8 Lighting Did you know that lighting accounts for about one third of the electricity used in the office? Here are some straightforward ideas to help you save energy and reduce the excess heat generated by lighting in your office. Switch off at night and encourage other colleagues including the cleaners to do so too. If you lights are controlled by a bank of switches consider labelling each light switch so everyone knows which switch to use for their workstation Use energy efficient bulbs instead of standard light bulbs. As a general light, a fluorescent lamp is the most energy efficient option, but natural light is best. Turn off the lights every time you leave a room. Contrary to popular belief, the fluorescent lamp does not wear out more quickly or consume more electricity when it is turned on and off. Remember also to switch the lights off when you finish in a meeting room. GREEN FACT: Lighting an empty office overnight wastes enough energy to heat water for 1,000cups of coffee. Heating and Cooling Monitor energy and water consumption in your building and introduce efficiency measures by joining the MY Energy staff awareness programme. Make sure that heating and cooling are not occurring simultaneously in the same office! If you re cold - put a jumper on! Turn down your thermostat at work and at home by just one degree and you will save 10 per cent on your heating bill while cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions. Check that your heating controls are set accurately. Check that the temperature is set to 19º-21º for an office environment. Check the timer

9 clock (if fitted) is reading the right time and set to operate at the right time. Turn down thermostat or radiator controls instead of opening the window. Keep a gap between office furniture and radiator to ensure heat circulates. Remember to report faulty heating, lighting or other office equipment to your facilities manager. Other Electrical Appliances Buy energy efficient appliances for the kitchen. If you purchase a refrigerator, microwave or a coffee pot for your office lunchroom, get the smallest size you need and choose the one with the best energy rating. Mobile phone chargers still waste nearly 25 of electricity even if the phone is no longer plugged in, so remember to unplug the charger from the wall Better still use a solar powered mobile phone charger! Fridges and Freezers : Do not leave doors open. Defrost as soon as necessary to maintain peak performance. Check the door seals to make sure they re in a good condition. Only fill the kettle with the water you need. Over-filling it means energy is used unnecessarily to heat water, which isn t consumed. For more information See the Energy Saving s Trust website for information on saving energy and the grants available for your home

10 Myths and Legends People often use office equipment in what they believe is a cost effective and environmentally friendly way when in fact what they are doing is exactly the opposite. Often they are acting on widely believed but wrong information, or they ve had a bad experience with older models of equipment and don t realise that the problem doesn t apply to the newer models. Listed below are the more common polluting, money and energy wasting myths and the realities behind them... My monitor is switched-off even though I can see a small yellow light at the front False If you switch off your PC your monitor will automatically switch to standby mode. Standby mode is easy to see as you can see a small yellow light at the front of the monitor. Leaving the monitor on standby adds to the excess heat in your office and wastes 10 for each LCD Monitor and 20 for a standard monitor. Turning computers on and off uses more energy than it saves False Start up current surges are of very short duration and at most they consume a few seconds of average running energy. If your equipment is not being used for more than a few minutes it makes sound financial sense to turn it off or switch to a lower power setting. Contact your IT department if you re unsure what to do. Turning monitors off is bad for them False Technology has improved greatly in this area and now-a-days a monitor is likely to become obsolete long before it stops working because it has been repeatedly switched off and on. Screensavers save energy False Screen savers are energy wasters. Most computers use about twice as much energy lighting up the screen as they use for processing. Originally screen savers were designed to stop screens being burnt by a constant image, but they aren t needed for modern screens. Not only can screen savers use as much energy as a full screen of work, but many require considerable processing energy as well.

11 It takes a lot of energy to start up a fluorescent light, so there s no point in switching it off False With modern lighting it makes sound financial and environmental sense to switch it off, if it has been on for more than five minutes. The savings are greater by switching the light off than leaving it on. Energy saving light bulbs are more expensive False Energy-saving bulbs last up to eight to twelve times longer and use only 20% of the energy of a normal light bulb. Each energy saving light bulb you use will save you more than 65 over the bulb s lifetime compared to standard bulbs. GREEN FACT: If all electrical appliance stand-by buttons (like the ones on your TV) in the UK were switched off at night, it would save enough energy to supply a town the size of Reading for a whole year. Thank you for taking the time to read the pages of this guidance and good luck Managing Your Energy!