Real Business

1 Cut the lightsLighting an office overnight wastes enough energy to heat water for 1,000 cups of tea. It’s also a waste of money.

Appoint an office monitor or ensure the last person out always switches off. Once you’ve mastered that, embrace “greener” lighting; replacing ten standard light bulbs with low-energy bulbs will save enough carbon to fill at least 3,000 milk bottles and knock about £65 off your annual lighting costs. 2 Drop the thermostatWe’re not talking chunky sweaters and scarves. Turning down the office heating by just one degree will slash your energy output and reduce your heating bill by up to eight per cent a year. It will also save enough energy to print over 40 million sheets of A4 paper, according to the Carbon Trust.

3 Air con?Air conditioning units are energy guzzlers. A decent fan is better for the environment and cheaper, too.

If you simply can’t hack it without air con, use it wisely: “We hope to save around eight per cent off our electricity bill just by adjusting the time settings on our air conditioner,” explains business development manager Andrew Rimmington of NXP Semiconductors.

4 Free money There are plenty of tax incentives for energy-saving businesses. The government’s Enhanced Capital Allowance scheme (see www.eca.gov.uk/etl) allows UK businesses to claim 100 per cent first-year capital allowances on investments made to cut carbon output.

You could even get free cash through the Department for Business’ Low Carbon Buildings Programme – potentially a maximum grant of £100,000 or 40 to 50 per cent of total costs, which can be used towards energy-efficient projects, such as installing solar panels. Check out www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk.

Alternatively, the Carbon Trust (www.carbontrust.co.uk/loans) provides interest-free loans between £5,000 and £100,000 to SMEs that invest in energy-efficient equipment.

5 Unplug itUK businesses waste huge amounts of carbon – and money – by not bothering to flick the “off” switch. A computer continuously left on will cost around £25 a year –but switching off at night and at weekends can reduce this to around £7 a year and save an equivalent amount of energy to make over 21,000 cups of coffee.

If 20 people plug in their chargers only when actually charging their phones, it will save one tonne of carbon dioxide every year.

6 Set targetsEvery business needs goals to aim for. Last year, around 400 British SMEs signed up to the “100 Days of Carbon Clean-Up” challenge. The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers initiative set companies weekly targets to reduce the carbon emissions caused by their business activities.

Setting similar targets – say, a ten per cent reduction in your paper, energy and water usage – will focus your efforts and help staff get behind the drive. 7 Get HR on side first…Start with your HR team. They are best placed to spread the word within the company – and explain the environmental and business benefits of energy efficiency. “It makes sense for HR to own carbon emissions reductions targets,” says Frank Beechinor, chief executive of OneClickHR. “They hold data on who drives to and from work, for example. And they can promote the idea internally.”

8 … But involve everyoneUse them only to get the message across. This is a team effort. Every member of staff should be committed to cutting the company’s carbon footprint.

9 Use car sharing schemesNinety per cent of London’s air pollution is caused by road traffic. Cut the fumes and create beautiful new friendships by encouraging car sharing to work. Check out www.carbudi.com to find who else out there is travelling your way.

10 RecycleUK businesses currently send almost 50 per cent – ten million tonnes – to landfill rather than being recycled. But not for much longer. From 30 October 2007, the new Landfill Directive will prohibit all businesses from sending non-hazardous waste to landfill without prior treatment.

Even if you’re not thinking green, spiralling costs and increasingly tight legislation are two very good reasons to get ahead of the game now.

Introduce a rigorous recycling collection scheme. Recycling one tonne of paper is equivalent to providing heat and hot water for a home for a whole year. It also saves 15 trees, 2.5 barrels of oil, 2.26m³ of landfill space, 31,320 gallons of water and 27 kilograms of air pollutants. 11 Use the tapDon’t buy a water cooler. They might make life easy, but you’re committing to a carbon-heavy process of giant plastic bottles, cooling systems and road haulage. What’s wrong with tap water? If you don’t like the taste, invest in a water filter.

12 Think about carbon offsetting…Fancy yourself as a “zero-carbon company”? Once you’ve slimmed down your heating and travel to the bare minimum, there are lots of companies that will happily “neutralise” your remaining emissions by investing your cash in sustainability initiatives, renewable energy projects and the like.

13 …But be very carefulThe carbon offsetting market is largely unregulated and awash with chancers. Perhaps the biggest gripe is that offsetting could be seen as an excuse to simply carry on our bad behaviour (check out www.cheatneutral.com for a clever analogy).

But even if you’ve genuinely cut back and want to “cancel out” the rest, many offsetting schemes are simply rackets, with large amounts of your money being spent on “administration”. Nevertheless, offsetting can be a positive experience if you choose your company carefully.

Look out for the WWF’s Gold Standard – it’s a best practice benchmark for projects that reduce carbon emissions and foster sustainable development.

14 Encourage cyclingTwo wheels are better than four, at least for the planet. Is your workplace set up for cyclists? Bike purchasing schemes, bike racks and shower facilities all encourage staff to use pedal power.

Under the government’s Cycle To Work scheme, employers can loan bicycles to their staff as a tax-free benefit, provided they are mainly used to get to and from work. 15 Change your energy supplierSwitching to a green tariff takes a few minutes (check out www.uswitch.com) but it could be the biggest carbon-cutting decision you’ll ever make.

The big power companies have (finally) woken up to green tariffs, but specialist providers like Ecotricity, Good Energy and Green Energy are usually no more expensive, 100 per cent committed to green energy and are actively investing in creating new renewable energy supplies. Go with them.

16 Insulate your workplaceDon’t yawn. Cavity wall insulation could save you a packet and a huge amount of wasted carbon. Around 30 per cent of all your office heat is lost through the walls. Check out the Energy Saving Trust to see if your building needs insulating.

17 Win kitemarksHow can you prove your carbon credentials? Winning the ISO 14001 environmental quality standard (see www.iso-14001.org.uk) shows that you’re truly practising what you preach.

There are also other accreditations, such as the BREEAM scheme and Penguin, which is developed by not-for-profit water company Belu.

18 Don’t fly…Business travel accounts for 25 per cent of all flights and up to 50 per cent of a company’s total carbon emissions. It’s not just about your staff, either. How much of your supply chain relies on air transport?

Organic food box company Abel & Cole upholds a strict “no fly” policy. “We never air-freight produce,” says director Ella Heeks. “It generates around 30 times more carbon dioxide than sea freight.”

19 …When technology already has the answersVideo conferencing cuts the carbon and increases the amount of time employees can spend doing productive work (when they would otherwise be hanging around at the airport). UK gas detection company Honeywell Analytics uses video conferencing at least twice a week, and reducing travel costs is just one reason.

“Video conferencing means you can still carry out your business dealings as if you were in the same room as each other,” says network manager Simon Turner. The kit doesn’t come cheap, though. For a budget alternative, try Skype’s free video calling.

20 Clean your supply chainConsider the carbon impact of your purchasing patterns. Buy recycled, low-impact supplies (see www.greenyouroffice.co.uk for ideas), or go vintage and buy recycled office furniture. You can pick up loads of second-hand office paraphernalia for nothing at www.uk.freecycle.org. If you do want to buy brand-new, make sure any wooden furniture has come from renewable stocks. Look out for the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) kitemark.

21 Redesign your productCan you make your existing product range more efficient? Fulleon, which manufactures emergency “break glass” units, worked with government advice agency Envirowise to simplify its product.

The result: a one-third reduction in the number of parts, plastic consumption, assembly time and packaging used in its design process. The consultancy service cost the company £97,000. But with annual savings – through reduced materials and labour costs – standing at £92,650, they’ll be making savings after just 13 months.

22 Green your car schemeMaking your company car a low-emissions model will qualify you for tax breaks – and help the planet. If you buy a low-carbon vehicle, you will be eligible for a capital allowance of 100 per cent in the first year, provided the car costs less than £12,000 and produces less than 120 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre.

If it produces less than 100 grams per kilometre, you will be exempt from road tax, too. You’ll also slash your company car tax: for cars producing less than 140 grams per kilometre, you pay tax on only 15 per cent of the car’s value. If the car is dual-fuel (like the Toyota Prius), you can also avoid the London Congestion Charge.

23 Reduce wasteGoing green isn’t rocket science. Just setting the double-sided feature as default on the photocopier can save 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Cornish environmental centre, the Eden Project, found an even simpler way to save energy when it switched from disposable to washable cutlery and crockery.

The decision saves nine tonnes of waste going to landfill every year, and 700,000 fewer disposable items are now bought each year, greatly reducing transport and energy costs. The Eden Project estimates financial savings of £180,000 over five years. Just from washing up!24 Fit solar panels Harnessing the sun’s energy sounds pretty far out, but PV systems (solar panelling to you and me) can provide around 15 per cent of your annual electricity needs. The systems aren’t cheap – around £9,000 – but harvesting your own electricity makes good business sense. You’ll be in for a host of tax breaks, including exemption from the Climate Change Levy.

Mark Ormiston of Ormiston Wire, the first small company in Britain to complete a solar installation, is thinking both of the planet and his balance sheet. “As a family business that has run for 210 years, we see measures such as installing solar power as an investment, not just in the environment but in the future of our business.”25 ToiletsHow efficient is your loo? An office of 100 staff with traditional nine-litre cistern toilets could save £500 a year simply by fitting a cistern volume adjuster, such as a hippo bag. In the little boys’ room, urinals operating without flush controls can use up to half of a company’s “domestic” water use.

By fitting Passive Infrared Sensors at a cost of around £350, a company with 100 male employees could save £3,800 each year in water costs. See the Enhanced Capital Allowance Scheme website for more ideas.26 Track your energy useKnow your enemy. Plug-in energy monitors (at around £25) work out the precise consumption of your various appliances. “Monitoring one of our boiling water dispensers showed that we could save 40 per cent by turning it off evenings and weekends,” says Susie Diamond, engineer at Fulcrum Consulting.

27 Shout about itLog every “green” action you take and educate your staff about the benefits. Your initiatives can be the backbone of a CSR strategy, which you can use to promote your ethical approach to stakeholders.

The rise in all things Fairtrade and organic proves that consumers are increasingly shopping with their heads and their hearts: in a recent survey, 86 per cent of UK adults said the environment is the most important issue for companies to focus on.

Paul Allen is the author of Your Ethical Business: How to Plan, Start and Succeed in a Company with a Conscience.