The ESOx Workplace Energy Efficiency Checklist

• Current energy use: Get hold of actual data (not estimates) of energy used, in units like kWh, such as meter readings/bills. Some smart meters can provide half-hourly meter readings which will help you measure energy usage throughout the day (a third-party app may be needed if your electricity provider does not make that data available to you).     
• Analyse energy use: Set up a routine to gather and check your energy data. It’s best to do this regularly, like once a month, to take account of seasonal patterns. With more detailed data, you can analyse energy use patterns based on building usage on various months, weeks, days or even different times of day. 

• Develop a strategy, with clear targets, for managing your building’s energy use going forward. 
• Have documented procedures to manage day-to-day energy use, including logging any improvements made, so you can check them against the data collected. 
• Agree whose responsibility it will be to manage day-to-day energy use, for example, a building caretaker. 
• Decide how to measure overall progress against your targets and set up regular reviews – this can also help with communications. 
• Agree whose responsibility it will be to lead on strategy and reviews, for example, a committee member or trustee, an interested volunteer, or the building caretaker. 

Getting your employees on board is one of the simplest ways to implement energy-efficient behaviour – they are the people involved in your business every day, so if they all make small changes, they will help to create bigger results.  You could even write energy saving targets into job descriptions. 

• Ensure your management committee regularly reviews the strategy for making the building work more efficiently when it comes to energy and move towards Net Zero carbon emissions as soon as possible. 
• Ensure that training is regularly updated and reiterated when necessary. This might occur when new individuals join, when new technologies are adopted, or even when a reminder proves beneficial. 
• Share any targets you have set with those using and helping run the building, as well as updates on how it is going – say ‘thank you’ when improvements are made or targets met. 

It can be useful to have evidence of your building’s environmental impact designed to demonstrate to your team, customers, partners, and the public your commitment to reducing energy usage and being part of the fight against climate change. 

• Communicating your energy efficiency drive. This could help with marketing your business to potential new customers who may be interested in your commitment to sustainability and the fight against climate change. 
• Added publicity opportunities: Is there a local Net Zero plan where you are? Oxfordshire has a Pathways to a Zero Carbon Oxfordshire (PDF) strategy set out, with work now taking place to develop more specific roadmaps. 

Once you have your data at your fingertips, an energy strategy, and all people on board, it is time to start on some improvements. 

While they’re more costly, long-term measures, there are quite a few low-cost measures that will help you take control of energy use – quick-wins for reducing energy bills and cutting carbon emissions

• Check your energy supplier. Is your energy sourced from renewable sources? If not, consider switching to a provider specialising in renewable energy. 
• Checking the building for draughts and adding appropriate draught proofing, looking in particular at windows and external doors. (Long-term, do they perhaps need upgrading?) 
• Replace old lighting with LED lights. LED lighting uses 60% less energy to power. This, coupled with an extended lifespan, will save your business a huge amount of energy. 
• Instal thermal blinds or curtains to help retain heat in cold weather and prevent overheating from direct sunlight. Thermal blinds can offer up to 20-40% reduction in heat loss in the colder months, as well as reducing heat entering your building in the summer. 
• Upgrade heating controls so they can be easily set to match the times people are in the building, and you are not heating empty rooms. 
• Review hot water used in your building, including boilers for drinks, so they are well managed and minimise wasted energy. 
• Switch off items that are unnecessarily on standby, and actively manage other appliances. Timers or smart plugs can be useful controls to help you and users do so.