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Envirowise experience has shown that office-based businesses could save as much as £250 per employee per year by taking steps to reduce their use of water, energy and consumables such as paper and packaging. Plus, taking action need not be as costly or time-consuming as some business owners may anticipate - there are a range of quick wins with long-term benefits.
Unnecessary Printing
For example, a single office worker can get through reams of paper every day, including often unnecessary printing of emails or draft documents. A good way to tackle this would be to implement a ‘think before you print’ campaign for office emails and encourage people to set double-sided printing as a default on their PC. Alternatively you could consider placing a limit on paper use by specifying a monthly quota per employee or department.
Office Recycling
Once you have encouraged reduction of paper use, you should make sure clearly marked recycling bins are also available in all offices - a good guide is one bin between six staff and one next to each photocopier and printer.
Water Waste
Water is another area where there are plenty of opportunities to make changes. For example, adding a displacement device or ‘hippo bag’ to toilet cisterns can help significantly reduce the volume of water used per flush. Businesses could also consider investing in push taps or dual flush systems for their washrooms, which could be eligible for tax relief through the Water Technology List (WTL) and offer a relatively quick payback period through savings made on water usage.
Online water tools available at www.envirowise.gov.uk/water allow businesses to record and keep track of how much water is being used on their site, benchmark themselves against competitors and find practical guidance on reducing consumption.
Reduce Office Energy Bills
However, the largest controllable outgoing in an office is often energy consumption. Experience shows that simple good practice measures can not only reduce environmental impact, but can easily reduce office energy bills. For example, when heating, reduce the temperature of a room by one degree; it is unlikely that anyone will notice and you could cut the heating bill by as much as 10%.
Businesses can request a free ‘Green Officiency’ CD-ROM Toolkit by visiting www.envirowise.gov.uk/greenofficiency The toolkit provides office-based businesses with a step by step guide to help reduce waste and the use of common resources such as paper, water and energy.
For more free, practical advice from sustainability experts Envirowise go to www.envirowise.gov.uk or call the Advice Line on 0800 585794.
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