Data from over 6,000 smart meter readings show that nearly 50% of business electricity use happens outside of the traditional business hours of 8am-6pm.

Thermal images of some of Britain’s largest cities such as Manchester taken at midnight, show just how much is wasted at night, says energy supplier British Gas, which commissioned the research.

It claims £1 in every £2 spent on electricity could be wasted, while some of its customers could save £1,200 on their annual bill just by switching off car parking lights at the weekend.

Eco-monitor can help you reduce your energy costs in your workplace by up to 50%. Visit the case studies on our web site to see what can be achieved and how we have done this for our clients. Please call us on 0845 680 9939.

Siemens, who claims to show the views of 600 businesses, suggests that more than a quarter of Board Directors do not know what their energy management investment will be over the next three years contradicting 83% of those who believe their organisation is serious about energy management.

The report also suggests that less than half of Energy Managers spend 10% of their time on energy management and one in ten say they cannot
afford to invest in energy management projects.

Juergen Maier, Managing Director of Siemens UK Industry Sector said: “These results do give cause for concern. Not only is the UK subject to strict legislative carbon reduction targets but many businesses are neglecting the impact that effective energy management can have on the bottom line. With significant costs attached to energy and indicators suggesting that high energy costs are here to stay, it really is in the interest of all businesses to take energy management seriously and look at the potential savings that can be achieved.”

See how eco-monitor have helped companies save tens of thousands of pounds by visiting our case studies, or call us on 0845 680 9939 for more information.

Daniel Clark, Managing Director of Hamilton-Clark Ltd, which specialises in feasibility, design, management, energy efficiency and sustainability, said: “With the independent convenience store owner, the power-base is somewhat different (to larger chain stores).”

“No matter how big or small your store, or how many sites you have, the benefits of better refrigeration are the same.”

“But while the multiples are in a position to push the refrigeration industry to provide better solutions, there is a danger that independent stores can be left out of the action, utilising solutions that comprise of yesterday’s less efficient technologies and lack forward thinking.

“This places unnecessary financial pressures on these already highly challenged businesses.”

“The fact is that many independent businesses understand very little about refrigeration and the options available to them because, there is little publicity advising them about the large array of highly effective adaptations that can be made that provide massive energy savings.”

Eco-monitor are specialists in working with Independent retailers on helping them to reduce their energy consumption and costs. For further information please call us on 0845 680 9939.

Water industry regulator Ofwat announced water bills will rise 5.7%. In comparison, most of the Big Six energy firms cut either their electricity or gas prices, in some cases by 6%.

Ann Robinson, Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch.com said: “Yet again the relentless drain on our finances will leave households fighting for air. Energy prices have only just fallen by £34 or 2.6% and consumers are already seeing the benefit washed away by this £20 or 6% hike in water rates.”

She said that while consumers might not have the option of switching to a cheaper water supplier, they do have the option of moving to a water meter, which could save them £54 a year.  Ms Robinson added: “As a rule of thumb, if there are more bedrooms than people in a household then a water meter could be more cost effective.”

Water use in the workplace can be a costly item, particularly if you are not monitoring it on a regular basis. Ecomonitor can help you manage your water through our easy to install water monitoring software. For further information please call us on 0845 680 9939.

The plan was launched last year and trumpeted by The Co-op as “the most radical sustainability programme in UK history”. It outlined 47 tough commitments, including increasing the society’s membership to 20 million by 2020 and promising to use Fairtrade certified goods for 90% of the primary commodities sourced from the developing world.

The Co-op said it had reduced its water consumption by 20%, increased its membership by a further million and helped 700 co-operative enterprises.

This year’s updated plan has 53 new commitments, including launching a campaign with Oxfam to champion small-holder farmers and co-operatives; reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2020; and investing £17m in support of co-operative development.

“Despite the economic downturn we have remained true to our pledge to show the way on corporate responsibility,” said group chief executive
Peter Marks.

“Our work in the communities in and around our stores is going from strength to strength. Amazingly, the average person in the UK is now only a mile away from a community project that has received our support.”

This seems so mundane, but is important for any multiple light switches. Often people will come in to the office and switch on every light, because no one has really paid any attention to which switch operates which lights. By labeling switches with stick-on labels, it becomes clear which lights can be switched off on sunny days or when no-one is working in that area.

An easy win, at no cost.

2. Switch off lights in unoccupied rooms and then install sensors

Most offices have store rooms, photocopier rooms, archive stores and kitchens. Label the switches with “turn off this light” stickers, and get everyone into the habit of switching off when they leave. The next step is to install occupancy sensors which can be simple wall-plate replacements. Occupancy sensors are particularly useful for toilets, where we have seen 80% reduction in lighting use. Place them properly though.

3. Blinds up – lights off

Many offices have the blinds shut all day because of early morning glare. If you can, open the blinds, let the sun shine in, and switch off the lights.

4. Retrofit lamps if possible

There are two easy to fit retrofit solutions for lights which can be done. The first is LED spotlights in place of 50W tungsten halogen spotlights. The LEDs seem to cost a lot, but the cost and hassle of forever replacing blown lamps will quickly repay the outlay. The second easy retrofit solution is to use “T8 to T5” converters on the fluorescent lighting. Here you replace wide diameter T8 (3/4”) tubes with an electronic gizmo and a T5 (5/8”) tube. Savings are from 20% to 40% of electricity depending on size of tube and hours of use. LED strip lamps are also becoming affordable, particularly in 24/7 uses. Full lighting refits are more expensive than retrofits but can pay back in around 4 years.

5. Sleepy computers

When you go home at night, either switch off, or put your computer to sleep. (hibernation), turn off your screen. If your IT department doesn’t allow this, get them to install an office wide centralised PC shutdown system such as “Nightwatchman”. These easily pay for themselves in energy savings. Make sure all the other office equipment – printers, photocopiers, faxes, display TVs and projectors are set to energy saver mode. Put simple timers on to make it even easier to switch off overnight and at weekends. Tiny stuff – phone and laptop chargers, desk-lamp transformers can all be switched off when not in use. Not big but easy to save a few watts of vampire loads.

6. Increase the temperature in the server room

Cooling of IT equipment is important to keep it functioning. However, common practice since the days of flared trousers was to keep it at 18 C all year round. Walk into most server rooms and the chill is apparent. A lot of electricity is used to keep these rooms cool. The IT equipment is now much more robust than in the 1970s. Recommendations from ASHRAE give a range of temperatures and humidity accepted by the IT industry. The recommended range is 18 to 27 degrees C, so a central set-point of 25.5 C with a range of +/- 1.5 degrees would be appropriate for reducing energy as much as possible. New guidelines are expected which allow even higher temperatures for some servers. Clearly the closer to the top of the temperature range that can be reached, the less energy will be used in chilling plant.

7. Know your heating controls

Office heating is often zoned and controlled remotely. Make a plan of the office and mark which thermostats control which zone. Colour it in ‘a la Blue Peter’. Make sure people know how their thermostats work and which one operates their heating.

8. Get to know your Energy Manager

Get friendly with your energy or facilities manager, (whoever controls your Building Energy Management System). Find out the times and set points they have, and see how, together you can shave off a few minutes here and there. Some large organisations have Heating Policies given to every employee which state what the temperatures and times for heating & cooling are.

9. Air conditioning dead-band

Make sure your air conditioning is not fighting your heating. There should be a “dead band” of from about 19 to 24 C where there is no heating or cooling. This prevents the often encountered lunacy of simultaneous heating and cooling! Also persuade the powers that be to install window interlocks on the air conditioning control system, so that, when the window is opened, the air con switches off. Otherwise you are trying to cool the whole world.

10. Kitchens

Go and look in the fridge. Does it resemble an iceberg inside? It’s time to get a new A++ fridge, and recycle that 1980s beast with no icebox cover. Put timers on “ambient” drinks machines so they are off overnight and at weekends. Replace the kettle or boiler with an instant boiling water dispenser.

11. Spending money on easy wins

There are some easy wins which you can persuade top management to carry out on the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and on the building fabric. Most will pay back faster than any renewables. Draughtproof everywhere, particularly around fire doors. In the boiler room, make sure all pipework and valves are insulated using jackets with velcro fixings. Install variable speed drives on air handling unit fans and heating circulating pumps (big electricity savings here). Install cavity wall insulation if your building is suitable. Install insulation above false ceilings. If the budget will stretch, install condensing boilers and new control systems, and install heat recovery on ventilation air extracts.

12. Awareness raising

Finally, raising awareness and knowing that you can do something is a powerful motivational tool. The Carbon Trust has loads of information on this topic. One of the best campaigns was a local authority’s green team who would walk round after hours and place a chocolate bar reward and a card on a random workstation where everything was switched off.

Behaviour modification by chocolate!

The report published today shows that most companies in the FTSE 100 are now regularly reporting on their emissions, but supermarkets achieved amongst the highest scores. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer were three of the top 10 performers in Carbon Clear’s research that studied publicly available information on FTSE 100 companies’ carbon reporting. The other top performers were British Sky Broadcasting, Pearson, Aviva, RSA Insurance Group, GSK, Hammerson and Kingfisher.

Criteria and findings

The researchers scored Britain’s biggest publicly quoted companies against 33 reporting criteria, covering areas such as carbon footprint, reduction targets, reduction activities and engagement. The average score was 56 per cent, while the top score was 97 per cent and the lowest 12 per cent.

The findings show that 93 companies in the FTSE 100 had issued a 2010 carbon report by June 2011, and 77 companies report carbon reductions in relative or absolute terms over the previous 12 months.

When broken down into sectors, as well as supermarkets, publishers, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and waste and water all scored highly. The worst performing sectors were manufacturing, mining and metals and building materials.

While the research indicates Britian’s PLC’s are getting better at carbon reporting, it shows there is still room for improvement. The report, for example, found 16 companies were unable to report any historical emission reductions and are yet to publish any plans or targets for achieving future reductions.

A recent review of FTSE 500 companies on carbon reporting by the Environment Agency also found big business was getting better at disclosing information about its environmental performance, but concluded that the quality of information was too varied and some cases basic.

The findings from the energy company’s latest Business Energy Index (nBEI) show that 53% of the 4.8 million* SMEs in the UK have no methods in place to manage energy efficiency, and nearly one in five (18%) didn’t know if they had reduced their energy consumption over the past 12 months.

This is despite figures from the report showing that where energy efficiency is being measured, 50% of SMEs reported savings of up to 10%, showing there is huge scope to make significant business savings, while also reducing carbon emissions.

Statistics from the Carbon Trust also highlight the potential for SMEs to reduce emissions further. The Trust found that SMEs have a potential energy saving opportunity of up to 20%, compared to 8% for large businesses.

Patrick Harvey, head of customer loyalty at npower, said: “This year’s npower Business Energy Index found that for SMEs, the greatest driver for increasing energy efficiency is cost, rather than the environment. This is why it is surprising that so many are still not measuring the positive impact that implementing energy efficiency measures can have on their business.

“The results of the research show the huge untapped potential for SMEs to both reduce emissions and increase savings.”

However, encouragingly, overall the nBEI found that the importance SMEs place on energy management and efficiency is at its highest level since 2005. When asked to rate the significance of energy management to their business out of 10, SMEs gave an average score of 6.7, which is up from just over 5 when the Index began.

Coupled with this, many reported to be proactively measuring their energy usage and recognising the payback of low-cost, quick-win measures such as turning equipment off, which was ranked as the most popular action over the past six months. This was followed by regularly monitoring consumption and reducing heat loss.

Patrick Harvey continues: “It is really encouraging that energy efficiency is working its way up the business agenda but there’s still a long way to go.

“More businesses need to realise that through simple to implement and low or no cost measures, they can lower their bills by around 10%. In today’s tough operating environment this is a saving that SMEs can’t afford to over overlook. This is why we’ve developed SmartStart – a toolkit and advice service which helps SMEs get energy saving measures up and running and gets them saving on their bills quickly. Smaller businesses don’t have to rely on their landlords or have a big team in place to identify and implement energy saving measures.”

*Figure from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills’ 2009 report (last available figures) – http://stats.bis.gov.uk/ed/sme/

The Newcastle-based company revealed it had experienced “challenging” trading during the first half of the year, with underlying profits down from £18.6 million to £17.3 million.

“We do not anticipate that the second half will bring any alleviation of the tougher consumer spending environment with disposable incomes remaining under pressure,” said the company.

Greggs’ shares, which until recently were among the market’s strong performers, dropped 38p, or 8 per cent, to 444p, in their biggest one-day fall since 2008.

Ken McMeikan, chief executive, said he was confident that like-for-like sales would increase over the full year, but that rising ingredient costs, including commodity prices for wheat, dairy products and meat, were not likely to abate.

“The tough economic environment plays to Greggs’ strengths, because we have got a great reputation for value,” he said. “We have been in tough times for the last three years and we have seen positive like-for-like [sales] during that period, despite footfall being down on the high street.”

Greggs is wooing Middle Britain with competitively priced croissants and hot drinks. The company enjoyed a 23 per cent increase in coffee sales during the first half, as its customers snapped up cappuccinos and lattes as well as sandwiches and sticky buns.

A record store opening programme helped to lift the group to a 4.2 per cent improvement in sales although if the contribution of new stores was stripped out, sales were up just 0.4 per cent.

Mr McMeikan said that flour prices shot up 30 per cent year-on-year in the six months, with meat prices between 3 per cent and 30 per cent higher. Dairy and energy prices were also sharply higher.

The company said that it expected flour prices to fall in coming months, but that it is anticipating further energy price rises. Mr McMeikan said that the cost rises would add to the pressure for the company to find cost savings.

It has a target of reaching £5 million savings this year, having found £1.5 million in the six months to July 2.

Source: The Sunday Times

Gas bills will rise by an average of 18% and electricity bills by an average of 16%. The change will affect nine million households with the average dual fuel customer paying an extra £190 a year. The company blamed the rising wholesale cost of gas, which has gone up by 30% since last winter.

British Gas managing director Phil Bentley said its bills were being driven higher by the fact that the company buys 50% of its gas on the international wholesale market.”We are buying in a global energy market and have to pay the market rate,” he said. “Rising wholesale costs is an issue facing all energy suppliers,” he added.

The company said it had been selling energy at a loss for the past three or four months. “After we put these prices up we will be making a fair return,” Ian Peters, managing director of British Gas told BBC News. “We are investing in the future energy supply of the UK… and energy efficiency in our customers’ homes,” he added. Centrica had already warned that it was likely to raise prices this year. In May, the company said its customers were not paying enough to reflect the increased cost of gas on the wholesale markets, and that this would depress its profits for the first half of the year.

But this argument was rejected by Mike O’Connor, the chief executive of Consumer Focus. “Wholesale costs have gone up but they are still around a third lower than their 2008 peak,” he said. “Yet in this time British Gas’ prices alone have risen by around 44% on gas and 21% on electricity and suppliers have made healthy profits.”

Last year, British Gas’ residential business made £740m.

Spending squeeze

In June, Scottish Power became the first of the big-six energy suppliers to announce another set of price increases. It said it would raise the cost of gas by 19% and the cost of electricity by 10% at the start of August.

The latest increase in energy bills, which is lkely to be followed by other big energy suppliers, comes after a round of ncreases last winter which saw British Gas put its charges up by 7% in December.

“Average household bill for a dual fuel British Gas customer will now go up from £1,096 to £1,288,” said the price comparison service Uswitch. “In total, British Gas customers will have seen their bills shoot up by £258 or 25% within a year, taking them from £1,030 a year to £1,288,” Uswitch added.

Richard Lloyd, of the consumers’ association Which?, said the energy firm’s announcement was an unwelcome move. “Many people are already having to cut back on essentials because of the rising cost of living, and with energy bills rising further, this could be a cold winter for many,” he said.

The Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne, said the increasing burden of energy bills highlighted the need to move away from generating electricity by burning gas and coal. “The UK electricity market has to change, so that we escape the cycle of fossil fuel addiction,” Mr Huhne said. “Alternatives like renewables and nuclear power must be allowed to become the dominant component of our energy mix.”