Office Audit

I had a look around my office to see what we are doing that is good and bad environmentally.

On the downside :(

No recycling for glass, aluminium, plastic (especially milk bottles) or food waste

Disposable plastic cups used for water cooler

Polystyrene cups (Big no no, what is this? The 90s?!!)

Wooden strirrers and disposable spoons

An excessive amount of lights

Excessive amounts of printing, creating huge paper waste

Ineffective air conditioning

Some windows don’t open

Some computers sit constantly on screensaver and don’t seem to ever be used

Mostly empty bar fridges in all departments – fridges are less efficient when empty!

On the upside :)

Paper recycling

No dishwasher in staffroom

Computers in sleep mode when not being used

Computers turned off overnight

Building lights off at night

Staffroom refrigerator is relatively small

Lots of room for improvement!

Immediately:

Remove all disposable cups, spoons etc

Recycling introduced

Mid-term:

Bar fridges could be downsized or removed.

Energy efficient lighting

Rethink systems leading to excessive printing

Long term:

Building heating and cooling needs a rethink

Whole company energy and waste audit

Refrigerator

Just a wee reminder about why we do these facts. Sometimes it’s really easy to think that there is nothing you can do to help the planet, which is kinda true IF you’re the only one doing it. That’s why we ALL have to work together. There are other people taking care of educating and motivating the masses, all you need to do is actually DO some of these simple things.

Onto today’s fact:

You know when you’re making a sandwich and you leave the fridge door open the whole time? Easier access to the cheese, mayo, tomato… Well, this is considered bad fridge behaviour. Naughty!

Your fridge is consuming a shit load of power – any physics student will tell you that. Think about how it’s working; it’s going against nature to turn heat into cold. Every time you open the door it has to start working again to cool down. Your fridge uses more energy than any other kitchen appliance, in fact, it is one of the most energy-hungry things in  your home.

Simple improvement – close the door except when you are directly using it. Unpacking the groceries, making a snack, offering people a drink – they’re all times when you need to keep it shut!

“Better refrigerator habits could save enough energy in one year to light every household in the country for almost five months straight.”

Electricity

This is the first in a series of tips about saving money AND the planet. Cos let’s face it, there’s nothing that gives you motivation quite so much as a little extra cash. I am being spurred on by my wish the save money, after receiving THE POWER BILL. This unholiest of documents arrived the other day and after regaining consciousness, I set about improving the power use in the flat.

Step 1: Turning sh*t off, such as the microwave, the telly, the DVD player, cellphone chargers that aren’t charging anything etc. That stuff uses power. Think how warm a cellphone or laptop charger is, that heat is just wasted power. It’s energy transfer, physics baby.

In fact, it is estimated 95% of the energy consumed by cell phone chargers happens when they are left plugged in.

So I went on a dictatorial mish round the flat, searching for things using power and shutting them off. I also changed out the multibox that the TV, Playstation, DVD, and MySky was plugged into. Why? Cos the cordless phone is plugged in there too, so that switch had to be on all the time. It now has a multibox with individual switches for everything, so we can turn it all off at night, but keep the phone on.

Yay! These small changes can add up to a lot, save power, save money, save the planet!

For more info on this and other stuff, check what the government has to say here