Small businesses reveal their energy hacks
11 November 2024
Small business owners are coming up with more and more ways to reduce how much energy they are consuming.
To conserve energy, they are encouraging working from home, installing air fryers and opting out of hand dryers. British Gas organised a study to find out just how effective these energy-saving strategies are.
The study showed that:
- 78% of employees of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) adopted better to cost-saving working procedures.
- 24% have put at least six new measures in place to reduce energy usage.
- 33% limited the amount of time the heating is turned on
- 21% have removed printers and/or are trying to be completely paper free.
- 43% turn off and unplug office equipment on a daily basis.
- 23% installed motion sensor lightbulbs
- 45% replaced traditional lighting with LEDs
- 20% use different types of heaters and heating systems
- 40% are turning down the flow temperature on their boiler by four degrees
Survey findings
Over the last 12 months, these measures have had a significant impact – smaller business owners reported to have saved £450 on energy bills.
Small changes can make a big difference to energy consumption in the workplace and it’s encouraging to know a lot of SMEs are actively doing things to keep costs down. Although prices have come down slightly, we know that many small businesses are struggling with their energy costs and we’re continuing to help them find ways to be more energy efficient and save on their bills.
More than a third (35%) of people saving energy in the office have found their measures to be ‘very effective’ since first starting them. Around 78% have encouraged employees to make suggestions, as 25% believe their staff enjoy these new measures just as much as they do.
Furthermore, 74% have never paid more attention to finding ways of cutting their energy costs than they have over the last 12 months. What’s more, 45% say they won’t relax any of the measures they have implemented so far – although 18% claim the opposite. More than a third (36%) are likely to introduce further energy saving steps when considering the year ahead.
The study highlighted that 34% have thoroughly enjoyed putting energy cutting methods in place, and 66% find it easy trying to think of new ways to save energy within the workplace. Besides the energy cost saving aspect, 9 in 10 feel that it’s good that their methods are also having a positive effect on the environment. And 21% of all those polled, via OnePoll, claim that reducing their company’s carbon footprint is more important than reducing costs.
Matt Wood added: “By implementing small energy-saving hacks into their day-to-day operations, businesses can start to reduce their overall environmental impact, too. While saving on bills might be their primary motivation right now, rather than becoming more sustainable, businesses can feel reassured that the changes they are implementing are helping to drive down costs and carbon at the same time.”
Top 20 office energy saving hacks
- Replace traditional lighting with LED bulbs
- Turn off and unplug electrical devices and equipment on a daily basis
- Reduce the heating temperature on the office/building thermostat
- Change bulbs to a lower wattage
- Limit the amount of time the heating is turned on
- Switch the lights off and work in natural light
- Turn down the flow temperature on the boiler (not the thermostat temperature)
- Install motion sensor light bulbs that turn off when people aren’t around
- Add paper towels in the toilets over hand driers
- Encourage working from home where possible for any staff
- Go paper free and remove office printers
- Reduce working on-site/in the office days to a minimum (if working on a hybrid basis)
- Upgrade to a more efficient heating system
- Encourage meetings to be held online rather than in the office
- Only turn the dishwasher on when it’s full
- Incentivise energy reduction challenges among employees
- Give everyone a break during peak energy use times
- Only allow site or office use when natural light is available (closing during winter)
- Limit the amount of time people are allowed to use the kitchen
- Get an air fryer for employee use
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