Guest blog: Cut carbon in your workplace

Anita Brook is founder of Accounts Assist, a growing firm of Chartered Certified Accountants specialising in accountancy and taxation services for all types of small businesses, freelancers, contractors and consultants. In the first of her blogs for FMWF, Anita looks at the steps businesses and employees can take to reduce the carbon footprint of their working day.

You recycle, use energy saving light bulbs and try and remember to turn the standby off on your TV, but have you thought about how you can make your business more environmentally friendly? Even if you’re not the business owner, there are some simple steps that everyone can take to make their working day more energy efficient. In some cases, these steps will even save you money.

Unless working from home, many of us jump in our cars every morning and if you live in a big city, it’s likely that the daily grind consists of a traffic jam. While public transport is more environmentally friendly, a few late trains and standing up for a one-hour journey can be enough to put anyone off!

If you haven’t got far to go, the best option is get on your bike – it makes the commute carbon neutral and it might even be quicker than driving, as you can bypass the queues. An added bonus is the potential of shifting any excess pounds – a cheaper option than the gym.

If the journey’s just too far and you really can’t bear the train (I’m sure they’re not all bad), then why not consider car sharing? You’ll save on petrol, wear and tear on your vehicle and reduce emissions. National Car Share, the UK’s longest-established car sharing scheme, is a good place to start – just register your details and the journey you make, and away you go.

It may seem like a license to watch Jeremy Kyle, but recent research has proved that most employees are just as, if not more, productive when working from home. If you’re employing staff, consider letting them work from home occasionally – this will help cut the whole company’s carbon wastage.

Once you’ve got to the office (after working up a sweat on your bike, or a friendly natter with your new found car sharing buddy) it soon comes round to lunchtime. While the local butchers might be the first port of call for the Sunday roast, do you ever consider where your sandwich comes from? Try and buy food that’s British and better yet, produced within a 25-mile radius – in doing so you’ll reduce the carbon footprint of your meal and help boost the local economy. For more information about produce in your area, visit the National Farmers Union: www.nfuonline.com.

For business owners who really want to take the environmentally friendly plunge, there is help available. The Carbon Trust offers free energy surveys, advice and interest free loans to companies looking to implement green initiatives – for more information visit www.carbontrust.co.uk. A recent survey by the Carbon Trust concluded that SME’s could cut their energy costs by a whopping 30 per cent a year, by taking carbon reducing measures, so by investing now, you will save later.

The new kid on the funding block is Feed In Tariff’s (FIT), with cash-back given for electricity produced by a renewable energy source – such as solar photovoltaics (PV) – solar panels that turn light into electricity. Under the FIT scheme you could get around £1,000 a year back every year for 25 years, more than covering the initial outlay (about £12,000, depending on the building). FIT’s is being launched in April – visit www.fitariffs.co.uk for more information.

Other, free, emission busting measures include, setting up Skype, so clients or staff in different parts of the country can ‘meet’ over the Internet, cutting down on unnecessary traveling. Skype costs nothing and webcams are pretty cheap – starting at around £30.

We all need to take responsibility when it comes to cutting carbon – it should affect every part of our lives, including our working one. In addition to making you feel good about yourself, saving money on your bills, and fitting into your size 10 jeans (if you take the bike option!). If it’s your company, ‘going green’ might also win you more business, as increasingly, people want to work with people who care about the environment.

For an overview of your company’s energy wastage, visit www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator, where you can calculate the carbon footprint of your business. As you start to make environmentally friendly changes, you can use this calculator as a measure of the success of your workplace. Some of the steps to going green are very simple and free, so there’s no excuse!

Posted by Anita Brook on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 2:52 pm.

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