Energy Savings

Energy cost have risen over the last year exponentially with gas and electricity increases potentially costing us up to £1million pounds next year.

Costs are likely to continue to rise into 2019 and with the effects of Brexit still unknown there are likely to be further increases ahead. Our target therefore is to reduce our consumption across all sites. With the hot summer I’m sure you noticed increased use of air conditioning and in turn increased costs. However last winter we had the “Beast from the East” and therefore there should be savings to be made over the winter months – the mild October and early November should already be helping in terms of reducing the heating bill on site.

There are still over 100 days of this financial year remaining, so your teams have been tasked to go further and cut our energy bills by another 5%. Every site needs to contribute to this target; with an average saving of just £15 a day the company would save £700k per annum.

Clearly the larger sites have an opportunity to save more money, but the principle is the same whether you are a dry side site with relatively low energy costs, or a large leisure centre with extensive leisure waters and 1 million customers per year.

Steve Parker, Head of Technical will be formulating a bespoke site action plan with your General Manager to support your site in making savings and achieving best practice in energy management. Your General Manager will communicate the outcome of this plan but in the meantime, you can help your site and General Manager make some immediate savings simply by completing the following:

• Less use of AC and more use of fresh air through AHUs.
• Turn off unnecessary lights and ensure lights and AC is only used when the rooms are in use.
• Unplug any seldomly used electronics or appliances.
• Log off your computer (do not turn off as important updates are performed overnight) and turn off your computer screen.
• Introduce Christmas closure plan ensuring optimum savings over this period.

We all have a duty to ensure that energy consumption is minimised – this is not just a company matter, it is a major issue for all local authorities to demonstrate that their buildings are efficiently operated in terms of energy consumption and there is a worldwide agenda to reduce carbon emissions. As a social enterprise it is our responsibility to reduce our carbon footprint and ensure that we are as energy efficient as possible and that starts through good housekeeping and controls. With your help we can save on our energy costs and help create more sustainable environments.