Roger Trapp: Cut your energy use and save money
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Your support makes all the difference.Managers of growing businesses might feel that they have more pressing issues on their minds than the rising energy prices. Such as ensuring that their businesses keep growing in these continually challenging times. But they would be wise not to ignore what is happening to the cost of energy.
Managers of growing businesses might feel that they have more pressing issues on their minds than the rising energy prices. Such as ensuring that their businesses keep growing in these continually challenging times. But they would be wise not to ignore what is happening to the cost of energy.
Most attention has focused on the oil price, which has risen by a fifth in the past three months. This is perhaps because it fits in neatly with the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. Less well reported have been the rises in prices of electricity and gases, and the likelihood is that smaller businesses, much like most domestic households, just settle these bills without too much thought - until an annual totting up reveals the truth about the additional costs.
The good news is that the experts reckon that the British economy overall is less vulnerable to an "oil-price shock" than it was in the Seventies, when the sudden price rises were major factors behind the recession and, in particular, the "three-day week". There are various reasons for this. First, the price rises are less dramatic than they were 30 years ago; second, the country is less dependent upon oil than it was and is, anyway, thanks to the North Sea, a net exporter of oil. More important, the economic reforms of the Eighties mean that the economy is more flexible than it was.
But this does not mean that businesses should just sit back and see it as just one of those circumstances that they can do nothing about. Whatever happens to the oil price - and it is likely to fluctuate according to events in the Middle East - the message from the UK's utility companies seems to be that higher energy prices are going to be here for a while yet. Indeed, it is a sign of the times that companies are offering even domestic customers the opportunity to fix their prices for certain periods.
Taking up one of those offers is one possible response to the situation. Another approach, which perhaps can be undertaken in conjunction with the first, is to look for ways to save energy.
The important thing to realise is that it's not just large manufacturers running lots of equipment who have obvious opportunities to reduce their energy consumption, and as such their costs. Even a small office can see real benefits from taking a few simple steps to tackle wastage. Indeed, the Carbon Trust, an independent organisation established by the Government to help the UK meet its climate change obligations, estimates that growing businesses are throwing away £1bn a year in wasted energy.
And wastage is at its worst in the winter months. Between October and March, energy use from growing businesses increases by an average of 16 per cent - mainly due to overheating buildings and leaving heating and lighting on too long, says the Carbon Trust.
All is not lost, though. Having worked with thousands of growing businesses, the Carbon Trust know that improving energy efficiency can be very simple. "A typical business can save nearly a fifth of their energy bill through very simple measures - and that's equivalent to a 5 per cent increase in sales in many cases," says Dr Garry Felgate, Carbon Trust's director of business delivery.
Although the Trust's origins are in promoting environmental awareness, Felgate is savvy enough to realise that - while many large businesses realise they need to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility credentials by having employees focused on this sort of issue - for most growing businesses such concerns are luxuries they cannot afford. His approach is to help them to make the cash savings through using energy more efficiently and let him "worry about saving the planet".
Detailed information about how to use energy more efficiently is available from www.thecarbontrust.co.uk. Measures that even the smallest and most stretched organisation can adopt are:
* Setting thermostats correctly (19-20šC for offices, 16šC for busy warehouses and 10-12šC for unoccupied spaces at night). Turning the heating down by just one degree can produce a 10 per cent saving on your bill.
* Encouraging staff to turn off lights whenever and wherever they are not needed. Such action can save as much as 15 per cent on your energy bill.
This might sound a little draconian. But at least it involves turning off the lights voluntarily. Back in the three-day week they went off compulsorily.
And at a time when every business is struggling to find new sales, finding an easy boost to the bottom line seems the best form of enlightened self-interest.
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