Business Green Week: Day three - lowering our impact by turning it off!

It’s day three of Business Green Week and we are in full flow! Today might seem like one of the more simple ideas, but it will be one of the more challenging days in which we actually realise how much we rely on energy intensive resources.

Offices quite happily tick along with the air conditioning on all day, maintaining a pleasant environment that might be just as achievable by simply opening the windows. Why are we using all this energy without considering alternative options first? Culture and habits among people and companies is a big part of the reason that these simple changes are not usually implemented.

Small changes, big differences

A typical office can use 30% of its annual energy consumption on air conditioning (see this information from The Carbon Trust), which not only costs a lot of money, but also requires more electricity which can release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. There are other benefits to not using the air conditioning too; if we open the windows instead, there is far more fresh air in the office and maybe even the odd bit of birdsong!

It doesn’t stop with turning off the air conditioning however - by turning off our printers for the day too, we force ourselves to question whether we really need to print a document. Hopefully the stimulation of thought will be carried beyond Business Green Week and we will all learn to question our actions and their impacts more.

'Protecting' is one of ecosurety’s core values and Business Green Week is a great way to kick off discussions and raise awareness around how we can protect the environment more on a day-to-day basis. It doesn’t have to be huge, as many small changes can come together to make a big difference.

So why don’t you try turning off the air conditioning and printers in your office for a day and let us know how it goes using the comments box below?

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