How to Motivate Your Employees to Reduce Your Energy Bills

In most situations, your employees will determine how much energy you use and how high your bills are. You can use technology, regularly compare business gas and electricity prices, and make changes to the structure of your build to minimise heat. You’ll still pay too much, however, if your employees leave computers running when they’re not in use, set the heating too high, or fill the kettle when only making one cup of tea.

It is therefore important to involve your team in all your energy-saving initiatives. You have to get them to buyin, and you have to keep them motivated and focused on minimising their energy use without affecting their work performance.

Here are some tips for getting your employees to actively help you reduce your energy bills.

Explain Your Objectives

Explain to your employees what you’re doing and why. This includes being upfront about costs and outlining how much you want to save. For example, do you want to cut your energy bills by five percent over the next six months? If so, explain this to your employees, and tell them why it is important.

Inform your employees of other reasons behind the energy saving policy, including helping to protect the environment.

Give Useful Information

The next step is to provide your employees with the information they will need to cut their energy use. This means going further than simply telling people to switch off lights. Instead, it means going through practical actions.

For example, your employees may not know whether they are allowed to turn a particular piece of equipment off if they find it running but not in use since they don’t know whether turning the piece of equipment off will affect business operations. You should therefore explain which equipment should never be switched off, which equipment should only be switched off by trained personnel, and which equipment can be turn off by anyone.

Establish Policies

Establishing policies is a way to give structure to your efforts to reduce the amount of energy used in your office. An example is creating a tea rota. This prevents people from making only one or two cups of tea at a time. Instead, everyone gets their tea or coffee together. This means the kettle only has to be boiled once.

Other examples include putting in place an open routine for the first person in each day and a closing routine for the last person to leave. This ensures things are only switched on when they need to be and that everything is switched off before the building is locked up for the night.

Incentivise

Another good method of motivating employees to cut their energy use in the office is to incentivise them. For example, you could set the company an energy reduction target. If that is achieved within the timeframe, you would commit additional funds to the Christmas party at the end of the year.

Lead by Example

Finally, make sure you and your management/senior team lead by example. If your employees see you taking steps to cut your energy use, they are more likely to do the same.

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Building Improvements That Will Save Energy

It is possible to save energy and lower your energy bills in almost every building and room in your business. This includes offices, manufacturing facilities, customer areas (shops, cafes, restaurants etc.), warehouses, specialist areas (e.g., commercial refrigeration units), and more. Doing so may require an initial investment, but once installed and/or completed, you will use less energy.

Additionally, if you combine the ideas on this list with steps to ensure you get the lowest electricity and commercial gas prices available, the savings can be significant.

Switching to Energy-Efficient Equipment

This is one of the most flexible options available, as you probablyalready operate an equipment-upgrading cycle, i.e., periodically purchasing new equipment to replace old and outdated equipment. To cut energy use in your business, make sure the replacement equipment you purchase has the best energy efficiency rating possible.

You can also approach this in a more proactive way. For example, you could replace every lightbulb currently in use with a more energy-efficient option. This will cost you money upfront, but will save you money over time.

Installing Smart Systems and Automation

One of the main reasons that businesses use more energy than they need to is people. Here are some examples:

·         Turning the heating up higher than necessary

·         Leaving a computer on over the weekend when it’s not in use

·         Leaving the lights on overnight

·         Leaving the lights on during the day when they are not needed,as there is enough natural light

·         Even worse, leaving the light on in a room that is rarely used for weeks or even months

·         Leaving a door open so all the heat in the room is quickly lost

You can solve all these things through automation technology. This includes smart thermostat systems that automatically control temperatures, ideally on a zone basis. It also includes sensors that can open doors or switch on lights whenever movement is detected, and it features timers so you don’t have to rely on people remembering to switch equipment, lights, or heating off when they are not needed.

Reducing Heat Loss

Heat loss is one of the most frustrating aspects of energy use for many business owners. You can spend time and effort trying to get the best possible business gas rates, you can invest money in energy-efficient equipment, and you can allocate staff resources to lowering your day-to-date energy use. However, much of this effort will be wastedif you have to heat rooms more than necessary because heat is consistently lost through the building.

The ways to address this are simple, but they require investment. Primarily, you should ensure thathigh-quality insulation is installed in your buildings and properties. This includes cavity wall and loft insulation, as well as insulation around pipes and hot water tanks. If you don’t have double-glazed windows, you should consider installing them to prevent heat loss through the glass.

Furthermore, you should draft-proof your buildings, particularly around windows and doors.

These measures will ensure you only use energy that is absolutely necessary in your business, while wasting as little of that energy as possible.

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