Office resource efficiency

Reducing energy is one of the biggest opportunities to cut costs and lower environmental impact in most offices. With good practice you may find it possible to reduce your office's energy costs by half.

How to reduce office energy use

The following top tips may help you cut your bills immediately:

• Compare energy tariffs from different suppliers to check whether you can change to a cheaper rate. However, to get longer term benefits you should cut energy use rather than just buying at lower prices.
• Introduce a daylight policy and end-of-day and end-of-week policies to switch off lights, computer monitors, office equipment and machinery.
• Switch to energy-efficient lighting, insulation and draft exclusion systems where you can.
• Encourage your employees to save energy.
• Check energy requirements before you buy any new equipment - then take the running charges into account when looking at the total cost of ownership. Think about how much heat new equipment could produce too and whether it could increase your air conditioning bills.
• Make sure that all your office equipment is properly maintained and operates at peak efficiency.

For more energy-efficiency advice, see office equipment and energy efficiency.