Yesterday at a CRC Energy efficiency event (CRC independence by I-prophets) we heard that 37% of participants in the CRC are from the Manufacturing Sector, many of which will have only one single site. For many of these participants it is unlikely they will have a dedicated Energy Manager role delegating to Finance, Environment, Property or related roles.

So the question is will they have a disadvantage in the scheme?

For example:

• Resources: Without dedicated resources will they have the capacity to meet all the legislative requirements to comply with the scheme?

• Forecasting: A slight increase in Manufacturing production could have a dramatic effect on consumption – so will buying carbon credits be more difficult?

• Standards: The various energy reduction standards require clear energy reduction targets  – can they meet these to get their Early Action Metrics?

I do hope the next stages of the CRC will be well explained and communicated to support these organisations with the Environment Agency taking the lead. Registration alone is proving to be taxing, yet the latter stages especially Carbon Trading will be much more complicated.

GAIA  2010

The project, called Time 4 Change, is aimed at getting council officers to constantly review their own energy usage to bring about a long term shift in behaviour which could save the authority more than £12,000 a year and drastically reduce its carbon footprint.

An energy efficiency team made up of staff from several departments will monitor electricity use across all the Council’s buildings and work with individuals to meet the 10 per cent target by February 2011.

Councillor Guy Jackson, portfolio holder for the natural environment said:

We have set ourselves an ambitious target but if we all work together I’m confident it can be achieved. Cutting energy use is more important than ever because, like everyone else in the public sector, we have a big budget gap to fill over the next few years and small changes in behaviour, like making sure appliances are turned off, can make a big difference.

The Council have already installed a combined heat and power system at Enderby Leisure Centre which will recycle the heat produced when generating electricity to maintain the temperature of the swimming pool.

The carbon trust has estimated that this new system could save a massive 352 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year with a potential financial saving of £42,000 annually.

(Blaby are using the GAIA three steps approach to achive energy reductions)

http://www.blaby.gov.uk/ccm/content/news-and-information/press-releases/2010/08/council-staff-vow-to-cut-carbon-and-save-cash.en

There is just 10 weeks to go until Registration Closes and penalty fines may then be imposed. The process to fully Register requires more than just an online submission and can take 2 weeks to fully complete.

Go to: www.decc.gov.uk for more information and application process. For those business with consumption below 6000 mwh in 2008 will need only submit an information disclosure and the process if free. For all others you are charged.

Legislation from schemes such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment/NI185  require ongoing energy savings encouraging business or organisations to challenge the norms of how they operate to find new ways to save.

Leicestershire County Council are doing just that by turning off street lighting where not necessary during the early hours of the morning.

There are many ways to save energy we just often don’t consider them because they have become an accepted norm.  It is now time to challenge these norms.

GAIA Behaviour Change and Energy Efficiency

August 2010

The Winners will be announced next week at the FSB Awards Gala in Leicestershire. The GAIA team are crossing their fingers!

We were thrilled to become runners up and hope to win outright in 2011.

There’s nothing wrong with what this store is doing. Every bit of renewable energy we can create contributes to saving carbon yet at the same time we have to things more seriously. Staff behaviour alone influencing excessive lighting or heating will outweigh the renewable generation many times over. The only difference is that staff behaviour cannot be placed aloft on the top a building.

GAIA May 2010

Is this true?

Haydn @ GAIA

The question is:  Is this a good intention to encourage the use of electric cars (the bays may well have been imposed to get planning permission) or a greenwash intention in the hope that it will never be used?

GAIA (Haydn)

Part 2: Green Wash is now a Car Wash

Well it seems the free energy has not caught on. Maybe they were hoping for a sudden flurry of customers eager to buy an electric car just to charger it at their car park. Anyway now it is a nice and shiny new ‘green’ Car Wash..

With lighting accounting for up 40% of your electricity bill a simple label next to each switch can instantly make a difference for little or no cost. It also begins selling an energy saving message encouraging further initiatives by employees.

Gaia Active works with businesses to drive down and control energy consumption. If you would like to hear more about how we can help your business, feel free to call us on 02476 236446 or email enquiries@gaiaactive.com.

AMR and Smart Metering will open up a world of information for companies to grasp on and save energy, but unless they know what to do with it or know what to look for it is just data. In fact assuming that ‘more’ information is better than what you already have is also a red herring.  More information is only good so long as it offers detail that enables actions you could not have envisaged before, otherwise it is just sub sets of what you already know.

Too often we meet companines in a state of data paralasis who monitor everything but don’t really know what it means or what to do.

If you are considering AMR or Smart Metering feel free to call GAIA for help. We don’t sell these devises – we help companies save money by using them effectively. Call us on 024 76 23 6446.

GAIA May 2010