Hursley leads the way in efforts to go green (4-Jul-07)
From Lauraibm
MI Summary
In June 2007 Hursley ran an awareness campaign to look at what employees could do to help save energy, the experiment found that whilst energy usage was below expected consumption there was a lot more that could be done on site to support employees vigilance. The results of the campaign have raised awareness and provided a good starting point for the site to engage with Johnson Controls and RESO in energy saving discussions. A wiki has been created to capture some interesting points on the subject; it mentions initiatives such as the Clean Desk Policy and provides tips on how employees can save energy at home e.g. putting a timer on the sky box.
Text of Article
During the week of June 4th to 8th 2007 we ran an awareness campaign in Hursley looking at what employees could do to help save energy. Our efforts have not gone unnoticed with our colleagues in the UK and US keen to learn from what the Communications team at Hursley have been doing to help keep our site population informed. Our experiment has shown that while energy usage was below expected consumption, there is a lot more we can do as a site to support employees vigilance. The results have raised awareness and have given us a good starting point to engage Johnson Controls and RESO in energy saving discussions. Again Hursley is leading the way as these schemes will be used to reduce site consumption across the UK. When asked if such initiatives prompt us to change our long term behaviour the majority of employees said that they are 'more likely to save energy as a result of these initiatives' and less than ten per cent said 'they didn’t think it would make a difference.'
Energy week prompted much discussion and correspondence around Hursley and the wiki has been used to capture some interesting comments. Lighting for a site this size is always a popular source of debate and we are all aware that turning lights off is a quick win. Johnson Controls and IBM RESO are looking at ways of enhancing lighting controls and how "out of hours" savings could be made. Some meeting rooms fall under departmental control and we would encourage you to raise problem areas with management for investigation. According to Richard Hopkins each flourescent tube in a desk lighting block of four consumes 18w, however they can be switched off by careful rotation. Richard says "I've rotated the tubes on lots of the fluoresent lights in my office area. It doesn't look much dimmer, quite a few people are happier with the softer lighting over their desk and the net result is a 936w saving." He also points out the dangers of climbing around in the office and recommends asking Johnson Controls to do this for you!
Graham Dyke submitted an interesting idea to the wiki under "what are you doing to be greener?" which you can view here. This is about operating a wider Clean Desk Policy across Hursley to integrate checks such as powering off monitors, chargers and turning off lights when you leave. As Graham says "the amount of powered appliances left on needlessly every day is alarming and the cost to both IBM and more importantly, the environment must be staggering."
The wiki has attracted other interesting facts such as:
"Put a timer on your sky box to switch it off during the day whilst you are out - it uses more electricity than a chest freezer, and even in 'standby' it only saves half the amount." - Rob Veck
"Fit a Hippo in your toilet cistern and reduce your water usage. Thames Water produces as much CO2 each year as 130,000 cars so by using less water you reduce emissions and the wildlife damage caused by extraction from rivers. If you have a garden get a water butt and maybe consider using rainwater to flush your loos!" - James Gladwyn
You can visit the wiki and add further comments or ideas of your own or even blog about Green Technology as Matthew Whitehead has done here.
We will keep you up to date with more news throughout the year of how Hursley is progressing and what people on-site are involved in, such as Bike to Work day held on June 20th. As part of the UK's national Bike Week, 108 Hursley employees cycled to work in support of the day, organised by Andrew Clarke, and earnt themselves a free breakfast!
Source: w3 News
