Suggestions needed please!

[everdream78]

Got invited to a meeting over the weekend about the future of the centre where I work and I got a bit vocal about how much paper/energy etc is wasted and how un-ecofriendly the place is - it makes me feel sick to be honest and it really winds me up! For instance, their last quarter's gas bill came to nearly £8000!!!!!!!!

So, for my frustrations, I've been appointed as the "Green Goddess" (or Green Nazi as someone snidely commented under their breath) and I've been charged with coming up with a Green Policy for the centre, as well as implementing all the changes that I come up with. (Has to be said, I'm well chuffed to be asked as everyone says I'm Earth's best friend lol)

So guys and gals I want ideas, links, advice etc on how I can turn this place around!

Suggestions on the back of a postcard or stuck down envelope or, even greener, on here!

TIA

[Epsom Gardener]

Hi Evergreen
Well done! Best advice I have come across (besides the obvious of energy saving bulbs, turning down the heat slightly etc) is filling 2 litre bottles and putting in the cystern of toilets so that for every flush you save 2 litres!

[Two_Sheds]

Turning off lights and computers at night?
Spell-checking work BEFORE printing off?
Drinking tap water instead of bottled?
Leave The Car At Home Day?
Turning off all the electric and having a day off !

[janeyo]

Hi what about using email instead of paper to let people know what's going on? Needs a bit of coordination but can reduce the amount of paper used by a huge amount.

Signs reminding people to turn off lights, taps etc, or even to have them fitted on timers if there is a budegt for it. Think you can get taps which flow for 10 seconds then go off and lights with automatic sensors.

A car sharing scheme to get to future meetings?

janeyo

will add when I think of some more!

[Mrs Dobby]

Way to go everdream!

Where I work we had a corporate pack from the Energy Saving Trust delivered to every branch, with stickers to go next to all light switches, stickers for thermostats and reminder stickers for the doors (to get folks to turn off lights and close doors behind them), which has resulted in a 20% drop in energy charges for those branches that follow the guidelines, perhaps you could get in touch with them, they may be able to offer some help? About Energy Saving Trust - energy saving campaigns, grants, news & events - EST.org.uk

Other than that, all of our paper and cardboard waste is collected centrally and recycled, we reuse all paper thats been printed on one side (just put it back into the printer to print onto the other side, saves us about 40% on the paper useage and costs), return our printer toners for refilling (saves waste and costs) and wherever possible recycle all our old fixtures etc (I've a lovely meguiars plastic display stand in the greenhouse, makes a lovely potting shelving unit!).

Another thing that could be done quite easily is to have several different bins set out for different types of waste, and perhaps compost anything that can be?

Please let us know how you get on and if there's any good ideas the rest of us can adopt in our workplaces!

[Paul Wagland]

An £8,000 gas bill? Wow. Is the building properly insulated? There are grants for that if not.

A lift sharing program would be good, maybe on certain days of the week if people can't bring themselves to do it full time.

If there's any food on site, get more local, organic or veggie stuff on the menu.

Recycling bins! Just get different coloured bins for glass, plastic, paper, metal etc. Some waste collection companies will be happy to collect sorted waste, or you could have a rota for taking the bins to the local recycling point? << EDIT: Mrs Dobby and I posting simultaneously there

Good for you anyway Everdream!! What sort of centre do you work in?

[quark1]

Cutting all A4 printed papers (single sided) which is non-confidential into A5 with bulldog clip and using blank sides for scrap note paper before finally recycling/shredding - did this many years ago where I worked well before it became fashionable. Saves stationary costs.

If a fridge in the place - put bottles of water inside to avoid people running loads of water to get cold stuff. Saves on metered water supply - but good anyhow.

Collect aluminium drinks cans people would otherwise disgard and sell to a scrap metal dealer - if one close enough - use cash to make a charitable donation, buy Xmas decs, plants for the office or perhaps a nice box of biccies or chocs to hand out now and then. Few little goodies might help people see that there IS something good in it for them!

[Mrs Dobby]

Lol Paul, great minds think alike eh?

[yoanbob]

reusing envelopes from outside in the internal mail? would help to know what kind of center you work in.

[OverWyreGrower]

We recently introduced little recycling bins instead of one bin....

1 for non-confidential papers
1 for plastics
1 for food waste

All our confidential waste is shredded (a few of us take bags home and use it for small animal bedding!)

Glass and cardboard are collected centrally on campus.

We have a "lights off" policy, but have to leave our PC's on overnight, as they are "managed" and get all the updates etc overnight.

Making sure the building is adequately insulated etc is always good; also doing the thermostat thing.

We also have a "bring out your dead" furniture day once a term. Departments get a chance to pick through and see if there's anything they need that someone else doesn't need; and anything not wanted is collected by a place called Furniture Matters who recycle it into the wider community.

[NOG]

An £8,000 gas bill?
If there's any food on site, get more local, organic or veggie stuff on the menu.

Sorry but how is that going to keep funding down...!

Sorry if this is bit long.

Your first thing is to find what tarrif you are on..and investigate switching it and or provider (if you go to one with Nector /Tesco points register and use the products for fundrasing). Hopefully you pay by DD but EON and a few others give Businesses 2% discount for DD payments.

As you are lookin at £30,000 pa for gas. You could negioate a discount if you pay the whole year up front. Its in your budget and you just accrue month to month.

Although I have had run ins with BGas they are very good and want to be seen as green.

If you are Council Funded get on to their Sustainablility section (they will have one), they will get you a deal on or free insulation. And they will give you massies of advice. If not Council Funded get on to them any way they are all good foke....meet them face to face with some of your produce...worked for me.

They should be able to provide you with PowerDowns. These attach to the 13amp socket and you plug the PC in. When you turn off the PC it turns off the Printer, Scanner, Monitor, Speakers and anything else connected to it.

Don't know what type of centre you are but you can switch to Eco balls (£30) instead of washing powder...each set will save £270 over their 1000 use lifetime and will save on elect as well cos they use a lower wash. Then use Tunble drier balls,(£9) they last ages and will save loads as you don't need conditioner, the tumble cycle is 30% shorter and on a cool setting.

They should be able to get you free low energy light bulbs to replace any Tunsten...or BGas will supply them. That will save you £10 per bulb a year(in an office).

The next may cos a bit first but swapping out any old kit....with A+ rated items. Install movement sensors in the toilets to turn off the lights when not in use, and the auto flush to the urinals in the gents.

Put call baring on the phones for International and premium numbers...(saved us a fortune).

If your printers have Duplixers (both side printing) intalled set this to default on all PCs. Set the power saving functions on the PC to MAX. Shorten the time the Photocopiers take before they powerdown.

Do not recycle Toner carts sell them, the is a compny that buy them off you and they recycle them.

Then Lotto funding....you have to put a lump in and it needs to be a community projcet but its worth a go.

And put up a green notice board....showing the saving that you have made month by month and list the things that others can do.


Not that I have done this before....

[Paul Wagland]

Sorry but how is that going to keep funding down...!

I read Everdream's post as being about ecofriendliness, not just cutting costs.

I didn't mean organic food helps cut the gas bill

[everdream78]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far - I need more!!!

The centre where I work is half youth centre and half business enterprise centre. It's an old Victorian school that's been converted and extended

I suppose I'm on a mission for both cost-saving and eco-friendliness - it goes hand in hand, so thanks again for all your suggestions!

[beefy]

We got a new cartaker at the school where I work last year . Its a school of 800 pupils and in one year he saved almost £20000 on the heating bill, when he saw the windows open in the classrooms he turned the heat off. the boilers had been running to hot so he turned the thermostats down first and then off at 14.00 instead of running them to 18.00 when everyone had gone home .
We had only 3 household recycling bins (blue for us) for the school and most paper was being burnt . After a call to the council we ended up with 20 blue bins before they realised I was serious and then offered me 6 of the large trade bins instead. I took them and when they came to collect the 20 small ones I only sent back 10 of them. The others are placed throughout the school and we fill all the bins every week.

[Rocketron]

Cutting all A4 printed papers (single sided) which is non-confidential into A5 with bulldog clip and using blank sides for scrap note paper before finally recycling/shredding - did this many years ago where I worked well before it became fashionable. Saves stationary costs.

If a fridge in the place - put bottles of water inside to avoid people running loads of water to get cold stuff. Saves on metered water supply - but good anyhow.

Collect aluminium drinks cans people would otherwise disgard and sell to a scrap metal dealer - if one close enough - use cash to make a charitable donation, buy Xmas decs, plants for the office or perhaps a nice box of biccies or chocs to hand out now and then. Few little goodies might help people see that there IS something good in it for them!

My bugbear. Check everyone's wastepaper bin and any piece of paper not used on both sides, means a £1 fine . Fines to be paid into a "kitty" for Christmas Party(or whatever).