Increase efficiency to maximise your profit

Energy and resources effect all businesses and can have a major impact on operations in terms of cost and productivity. Increasing efficiency in these areas not only brings increased competitiveness, but also significant environmental benefits.

There are two main approaches to developing your resource efficiency strategy:

• consume less - cut down on what you use, such as paper and ink
• manage your waste - make the most of the waste you generate, eg sell it on or recycle

Resource efficiency in the workplace

Energy efficiency and green operational practice are now widely accepted in the workplace. There is a wide variety of resources online to help you save on energy consumption and minimise your waste.

A few starter tips on workplace efficiency include:

• using office supplies more efficiently - eg don't print out every email
• being innovative with your product design - using less packaging/printing
• turning off lighting or heating when not in use

For more advice on increasing workplace efficiency, see how to reduce your business waste to save money and read about managing your energy use.

Waste management and efficiency

While you will make significant savings by becoming more resource efficient, you will not be able to remove all waste. Managing the waste that you do produce can be just as important. Make sure you can manage your waste by:

• having a waste management plan
• recycling where possible - plastics, paper, metal
• investigating methods of disposal - some waste may even have a resale value

See more on reducing business waste in our efficiency guides: introduction to waste management, waste reviews, policies and action plans and office resource efficiency.

Help with energy and resource efficiency

Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) can offer support to Northern Ireland businesses interested in reducing their energy, waste and resource costs.

Invest NI's Energy and Resource Efficiency team can provide:

• technical consultancy - to help identify areas for increased efficiency and cost savings
• resource matching service - to find opportunities to turn your waste into another business' resource
• resource efficiency capital grant - to provide investment support for projects that aim to reduce the consumption of water, raw materials or waste production

For more information, read about Invest NI energy and waste management support.

Alternatively, you can contact Invest NI's Energy and Resource Efficiency team by email ere@investni.com or Tel 0800 181 4422.