Need some advice

[ronnie888]

I work as part of the finance team for a chain of luxury stores and recently I feel like we can be saving a lot more in terms of energy and water. I have talked about this idea with my superior and he told me that any changes to how our company is ran must be agreed upon the President and different heads of the company first.
Now, I managed to interest our head of finance with my idea and he has given me a budget to spend on making a detailed proposal. I am now in my planning stage and I've thinking about where I should start first. I want to make it so that we can minimize our carbon footprint. Our head of finance has agreed that this will make our company's image better and possibly attract more customers.
Any suggestions or advice on how I can go about achieving this?

[veggiechicken]

My thoughts are - you're on the wrong forum to be asking for business advice.
We can help you with gardening questions - although we don't have much experience of growing in the southern hemisphere..

[WilliamD]

I remember as a kid in the 70s seeing stickers saying 'Save It' next to every light switch. That was in the wake of the oil crisis and subsequent pressure on energy resources. It was a little thing but did at least temporarily seem to instill the discipline of turning things off when not needed.

[Bonsai Si]

Sponsor a forest.

[Nicos]

There must be advisors/ experts with degrees in what you are asking?

Personally, I would ban all plastic bags...not buy anything made say more than 100 miles from the shop( preferably nearer)
Ban any products containing Palm oil, and sponsor some of your local wildlife such as orangutangs

[Guest]

Own veg garden to support staff/customer canteen. Green spaces outdoors and plants indoors are believed to increase productivity however this issue alone trying to research and use as a proposal takes hours and hours and as far as companies are concerned they want figures.

Good luck in your quest.

[Nicos]

Maybe collecting rainwater from the roof/storage depots and using it as grey water for the toilets ?
Roof gardens- as mentioned above.

What do you sell?...that would make a heck of a difference when trying to source and save on carbon footprints.

[seasprout]

This site might be useful.... Carbon Trust

[Jungle Jane]

recently I feel like we can be saving a lot more in terms of energy and water.

How do you feel water & energy are being wasted? What do you see happening? Are you thinking of growing from seed to minimise your companies carbon footprint? Growing your own would give an excellent image for a company.

[Coopers]

Personally I would write the report by breaking down improvements each department could make and a section for improvements to common company elements.

Have no idea what the company is, what it does etc so can't provide anything too useful. As I work in IT then obviously there is a bunch of IT improvements that can be done.

[dearestirate]

You can get the services of a management company that caters utility expense management services. I know there are companies that provide solutions and will help their clients to proactively manage their energy in the most cost effective way. They will help you figure it out.

[bearded bloke]

I know there are companies that provide solutions and will help their clients to proactively manage their energy in the most cost effective way

As you are in the same geographic area as the original poster I would suggest that you send a Private Message giving the details as any advertising of that nature on the open forums will be sumarrily deleted unless there is prior approval from Admin

[ronnie888]

Thanks for the suggestions and advice you guys. I'm going to take note of them and do some research. ^^
We are also considering hiring the services of this company (link removed - an energy and sustainability management company in America). I'm not sure if my bosses have already gotten a quote from them but we're hoping that they can help us with our new program.

[Ding Dang Doo]

Start by finding out what you are doing now.

how much do you spend on Energy as a company, how much the cost of your fuel spend is - break it down into different areas gas, electricity etc. You'll know this better than anyone as you work in finance.

Bear in mind that anything you do will will have to have a financial saving, not just a greener image, green is good, but it's pleasing the top bean counters that will get the nod for any changes you want to help bring through.

Well done for being proacitve with this, if every business took an interest in this part of their business, it can only help for future generations.