Gotelee and Goldsmith
Gotelee and Goldsmith. Medium sized firm based in Ipswich.
Our carbon reduction project was born when we tendered for a job and were asked for our environmental policy. We threw one together for the purpose and it must have been good because we won the work. Someone then suggested that we’d better put it into action. After a moment of stunned, bewildered silence, we realised we had to do it.
Our offices, in the middle of Ipswich, are an endearing mixture of Georgian, Victorian and seventies architecture. Around seventy people work here. It’s a normal office environment except perhaps for a large, high ceiling hall where people once got married.
We began the project by trying to measure our energy use and by walking around the building using the Carbon Trust checklist to identify areas for improvement. We went round the offices and, to our profound shock, found every single printer and photocopier left on, well after everyone had left the building. A couple of computers had been completely left on. A couple of the rooms felt like saunas.
After the first faltering steps, we were helped immensely by the arrival of an advisor from the Suffolk campaign for carbon reduction, who calculated our carbon footprint , gave us a benchmark to aim for and provided a hugely useful action plan.
We then launched a staff awareness campaign. There was a presentation which was light on climate change doom-mongering and heavy on humour and practical ideas. The staff loved it and we were overwhelmed by the response – ideas came flooding in, computers were suddenly totally turned off at night, lights were no longer left on when not needed. We installed a system of timers on the printers and photocopiers after consulting with staff and began replacing lights with low energy versions. Recycling facilities were improved.
We’ve been working with our IT manager and secretaries to find ways of reducing paper use, for example, printing all our internal documents on both sides of the paper. Many habits are just that – ingrained and unquestioned. It’s important to question why we do certain things and whether there are other ways.
Our biggest challenge is the storage heaters in our older buildings – energy guzzlers and so inefficient that staff have to use electric fan heaters or sit in their coats! To replace them will be a very expensive job. We are investigating Carbon Trust loans to perhaps fund new heating or an energy management system. One thing we have been able to do immediately is switch to a green energy supplier.
We publish a monthly newsletter called ‘Hot Air’ (so proud of that name!) to keep staff informed and we hold regular meetings of a small ‘committee’ consisting of our practice manager, the HR manager and a solicitor.
It's good to have expert input in measuring energy use and setting targets.
Do the campaign right and the staff will be enthusiastically on board
Such a project has cost and marketing benefits. Use them to their maximum advantage, especially when persuading partners to agree to changes
Put in place an energy 'champion' - someone to spearhead the campaign and preferably someone who is passionate about tackling climate change. A person like that will keep the momentum going.
We would recommend this to any firm of our size. It has benefits beyond the carbon reduction in terms of staff involvement and the profile of the firm.
So far we have:
*halved the size of our black ‘landfill’ bin and we even have a compost bin to service the landscaped areas around our buildings!
*We've made cost savings on refuse collection of over £500
*Initial readings suggest that our energy use is falling although we have yet to quantify the actual savings.
* We are hoping paper use will go down.
*It's early days yet but it’s so exciting to see real results already.