PECT helps local businesses cut their costs

Environmental charity Peterborough Environmental City Trust (PECT) has helped 17 local businesses to reduce their environmental impact, including Peterborough United Football Club.

The help has been provided as part of a project called Resource Efficiency East which has been funded by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The scheme has provided a range of local firms with in-depth environmental support to reduce their carbon footprint and costs.

Rachel Huxley from PECT visited 17 businesses to provide tailored advice on key areas each business should focus on. According to Rachel this varied depending on the nature of the business, “The key environment issues for a manufacturing firm are different from those of an office. This project aimed to help a variety of businesses identify how they could operate in a greener way, whilst at the same time saving them money.”

“This ranged from finding ways to reduce the amount of energy used, or managing waste more effectively so it doesn’t end up in landfill. We were able to save one firm over £2,000 a year just by suggesting they switch to energy saving bulbs.”

“Simple actions really can make a big difference, for example heating costs go up 8% each time you increase the temperature by just one degree.”

Each firm received a review of their premises looking at all the areas the business could save money and reduce resource use. After the visit to each firm they also received a bespoke report detailing which areas to prioritise and how much money they could save by taking various actions.

Some of the suggested ‘quick wins’ for POSH include:

• Replacing light bulbs with energy efficient ones with an estimated saving of £2, 180.00 and 11.5 tonnes of CO2 every year
• An education campaign to ensure lights are switched off in rooms not being used with an estimated saving of £860.00 and 3.5 tonnes of CO2 every year.

Longer term improvements include rainwater harvesting for pitch irrigation, and even for use in toilets and urinals. This could save over 1.5 million litres of water and around £2,000 a year. It is estimate that an ongoing environmental awareness campaign with staff to reduce paper used and waste created would result in further 10% reduction in costs.  

From: http://www.pect.org.uk/news/161-3-august-posh-goes-green