Employee awareness and office energy efficiency

Creating an awareness campaign guide

Ideally energy awareness and cultural change should complement other elements of good practice as part of an integrated approach to energy management in your organisation.

This 29-page guide to employee engagement provides ideas and resources to motivate everybody to save energy, to help engage staff in making your workplace more energy efficient. This will ensure long-term benefits for people, the organisation and the environment.

Guide contents:

• How to use this guide
• Step 1: Planning
• Step 2: Implementation
• Step 3: Reviewing and communicating
• Step 4: Maintaining awareness
• Next steps
• Further information
• Appendix A: Walk around checklist
• Appendix B: Questionnaire

Publication date: August 2011 (Updated Dec 2013); Publication code CTG056 (was CTG001).

Download the Carbon Trust Guide to Creating an awareness campaign

Our business and public sector advice services can support you to develop and implement employee engagement strategies, including:

• Employee engagement in the corporate workplace
• Organisational engagement support for public sector organisations

Office energy-saving advice

From PCs to vending machines, office equipment of some kind or another is used by almost all UK businesses, and accounts for around 15% of all the electrical energy used in UK offices.

It's an area where huge savings can be made, as effective management of equipment can reduce its energy consumption by up to 70%. Start by focusing on the following three areas:

1. Upgrade existing equipment
   Technology advances daily. New equipment with better energy efficiency ratings can lead to big savings. Watch the video and see how much you could save by upgrading old monitors. You'll find advice on a range of equipment in upgrading equipment and systems.
   
   
2.  Have an office equipment policy
   Develop a set of guidelines to standardise operations and communicate it. For example: activate stand-by modes on PCs and set up printers to print both sides of the paper (duplex printing).
   
   
3.  Maintain equipment
   Well-maintained equipment is more efficient and lasts longer. So set up a maintenance schedule, keep equipment free from obstructions and prevent over-heating by cleaning filters and fans regularly.

View the video below (in English) for an overview of how to improve energy efficiency in your office:

Further guidance for office energy-saving

We have the following publications available for free download:

• Maximising energy savings in an office environment (CTV007)
• Office equipment overview (CTV005)