Simple actions and technology changes with short payback periods can reduce your workplace energy consumption considerably - and save you money on your on-going energy costs.

• Change your thermostat settings for summer and winter. Maintaining a constant inside temperature year-round is wasteful and unhealthy when the outside temperature changes so much between seasons. Set your thermostat to 18-20°C in winter and 26°C in summer - and let people use clothing to regulate temperature to suit their individual preferences. Encourage a "no jacket" policy for summer, so staff don't overheat.
• Turn off lights when they're not needed. Don't leave lights on in offices, bathrooms, meeting rooms, etc., when they are not in use - change your habits to turn them on and off manually when you need to use the facilities, or have sensors installed so the lights only operate when needed.
• Test the light levels in your office and then simply remove excess light bulbs to cut down on energy consumption - really, just take them out, it won't harm anything.
• Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs - they produce more light with much less energy.
• Automate your systems. Install timers, zones and / or sensors to control heating / cooling systems, lights, etc. There is no sense having these operate overnight and over weekends, or even during the day in areas where nobody is actually working or where there is enough natural light. The upfront costs are generally recouped within one year due to the on-going savings on energy costs.
• LCD screens use less energy than old fashioned CRT monitors. They also take up less room.
• Laptop / notebook computers use less energy than traditional desktop models and provide flexibility for staff to work from home.
• Turn off computers, monitors, printers, photocopiers, etc., overnight and when not in use for long periods during the day. Use the 'power save', 'standby' or 'eco' settings to minimise power consumption in these items for short periods of inactivity - but be aware that they are still using energy and creating greenhouse gas emissions in this state, so for long periods of inactivity turn them off at the switch.
• Move office equipment away from air-conditioning thermostats. Printers and photocopiers, produce heat when operating which can lead to false readings on thermostats, causing air-conditioning to work overtime.

The perception of workplace travel varies from a desirable “perk” of the job, to an "obligation" that takes people away from their families and it is now recognised as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. In a world of mobile phones, smartphones, email and internet, we now have viable alternatives to the traditional business meeting and we can reduce our travel without compromising business outcomes. In fact we can even enhance business outcomes while reducing our environmental footprint.

• Consider alternatives to the traditional face-to-face meeting. Will an email or phone conversation achieve the same outcomes?
• Teleconferencing or internet conferencing technologies are now providing viable alternatives to traditional meetings. Set up and operating costs are readily recouped through savings in airfares, car rental costs, fuel costs and staff time.

Urban water systems contribute to climate change as a result of the use of energy to process and pump water.

Hot water requires more energy to heat the water.

• Install water efficient products in workplace kitchens, bathrooms and toilets. There are star rating systems for water and energy efficiency that show you at a glance how efficient each product is.
• Ensure dishwashers, whether in the office kitchen or a restaurant kitchen, are only used with a full load - they use the same amount of water whether full or almost empty of dishes.
• Laundering of bed linen and towels is a significant water use associated with accommodation services. Offer guests in hotels, motels, etc., the option of not having daily laundering - and make sure service staff honour the selected option.
• If you are a guest, take the option of only having your linen laundered at the end of your stay when staying more than one night.
• Analyse water use in operational processes, and look for opportunities to reduce consumption or re-use water.

Vehicles have become a fundamental mode of transport in South Africa and for most businesses a vehicle fleet is pretty much a given, but the convenience of cars means that many greenhouse gas emissions are generated to transport staff to meetings, between business sites, to and from work and social activities.

Each kilometre we drive burns fuel and that fuel releases greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Every litre of unleaded petrol you consume releases around 2.5kg of greenhouse gas (measured in CO2-e or carbon dioxide equivalent), while one litre of diesel releases 2.9kg CO2-e and LPG 1.7kg CO2-e. The efficiency of the vehicle (a function of design, engine, weight, etc.) and driving style of the driver determine the fuel consumption and the amount of greenhouse gases released per kilometre, so there are plenty of factors that can be changed to reduce the emissions you create.

• Plan your meetings and combine several meetings in one location if you need to drive. This reduces the emissions generated by travelling to the same location on multiple occasions. Organise meetings, deliveries and other business activities to avoid vehicle travel during peak periods - you'll see reductions in fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and precious time.
• Consider alternative transport - travelling on a train or bus could give you time to read or work on a laptop computer while getting to and from your destination.
• Carpooling with colleagues is also an option that can reduce emissions and give you an opportunity to prepare for your meeting or discuss other workplace issues.
• Select the right car for the job. If your workforce and travel needs are based primarily in metropolitan areas, a fleet of compact cars or hybrid petrol-electric vehicles would probably offer the best fuel efficiency and lowest greenhouse gas emissions for the job. If your workforce and travel requirements require frequent long distance trips, a fleet of efficient new turbo-diesel vehicles may be more appropriate. If you need a larger 4WD or trade vehicle - investigate new diesel options which balance both performance and fuel efficiency.

Train your drivers to drive more efficiently, making necessary vehicle trips as low-emission as possible. Reducing fuel consumption means reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fuel costs - regardless of the car you drive. Here are some really simple tips to help everyone drive more efficiently.

• Drive smoothly
  
  Aggressive driving can use as much as one-third more fuel compared to conservative driving. Avoid accelerating or braking too hard, and try to keep the steering action as smooth as possible.
• Tune and service the engine
  
  A well-tuned engine can improve fuel economy by up to four per cent. Change the oil regularly and follow the car manufacturer's recommendation on servicing.
• Keep the tyres at the correct pressure
  
  Correctly inflated tyres are safer and last longer, and they also reduce the amount of energy required to keep the vehicle rolling. A tyre that is under-inflated by one psi (pound per square inch) can reduce fuel efficiency by as much as three per cent.
• Travel light
  
  For every extra 45 kilograms carried in a vehicle, the fuel efficiency can drop by two per cent, so keep the boot and rear seat clear of any unnecessary items that just add weight to the vehicle.
• Take the roof rack off
  
  Remove roof racks or roof bars if they are not being used to carry anything. They reduce the aerodynamic efficiency of the vehicle and create drag, reducing fuel economy by as much as five per cent.
• Use the correct engine oil
  
  Always use the recommended grade of motor oil. Using the manufacturer's recommended lubricant can improve fuel efficiency by one or two percent. Higher quality motor oils can also help your engine operate more efficiently.
• Use higher gears
  
  The higher the gear, the lower the engine speed. This can improve fuel efficiency, so use the highest gear appropriate, without causing the engine to labour at an ultra-low rpm.
  Automatic transmission vehicles will upshift through the gears more quickly and smoothly if the driver eases back slightly on the accelerator when the car has gathered sufficient momentum.
• Avoid excess idling
  
  Idling gets a vehicle nowhere but still burns fuel. Turn the engine off when you're in a queue, or waiting for someone, until you need to drive.
• Avoid high speeds
  
  The faster you travel, the more wind resistance you'll encounter and the more fuel your vehicle will consume just to maintain speed.
  Travelling at 110km/h uses up to 25% more fuel than cruising at 90km/h. For city driving, 60km/h is the most fuel efficient speed.
• Maintain the distance
  
  Leaving a sensible distance between your car and the vehicle in front gives the driver ample time to anticipate obstacles and to brake evenly.
• Use air conditioning sparingly
  
  Air conditioning puts added strain on the engine and uses additional fuel when operating, so limit its use to particularly hot days. On milder days, use the fan instead of air conditioning.
• Check the air filter
  
  The air filter keeps impurities from damaging your engine. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve fuel economy by as much as 10 per cent while helping to protect your engine.
• Avoid rush hour or traffic jam hotspots
  
  If you can travel outside of peak times and avoid known areas of heavy traffic, you'll spend less time stuck in queues and slow-moving traffic, thus consuming less fuel.
• Conserve momentum
  
  Think ahead when driving. For example, slow down early to let red traffic lights change to green, rather than stopping completely. Also, speed up a little before reaching the start of a hill and then allow the vehicle's momentum to carry the vehicle up the hill without working the engine harder.
• Use the handbrake on slopes
  
  Many motorists do not use the handbrake when stopped temporarily on a slope. Instead, they either partially disengage the clutch (on manual transmission vehicles), or use the accelerator (on automatic vehicles), to keep the vehicles from rolling back. Both actions use fuel unnecessarily.

• Flexible work hours allow staff to travel outside peak times meaning they don't spend time idling in traffic.

Travel during work

• Encourage staff to travel via public transport to work appointments. Purchase public transport tickets in advance and make them available from a central location in the workplace, along with timetables, maps and other information to assist with public transport mobility.
• Car pool to meetings. Not only will this reduce your emissions, you can also do some pre-meeting planning or discuss other workplace issues while travelling.

Salary packaging

• Salary package public transport instead of a vehicle and / or car parking. Have a few pool cars available for necessary vehicle trips, rather than a car and a car park per person.
• Provide incentives for the selection of lower emission vehicles if you do salary package vehicles. These incentives can be financial or benefit based (i.e. only provide car parking if a low emission vehicle is selected).

Support staff environmental initiatives

• Develop a green team for your workplace to drive an environmental program. These teams work best when there is buy-in and involvement at all levels within your organisation.
• Allocate time for staff participation in official environmental activities or working groups, rather than expecting them to undertake these activities on top of existing responsibilities.
• Offer gift matching for donations to environmental charities. Ask staff to provide you with a receipt of their donation and then match their donation.
• Provide an incentive program for staff to reward emission reductions in the workplace.

Waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions in two ways:

1. There is embedded energy associated with any product or food source (i.e. energy has been consumed to produce it in the first place) - by throwing it away you are wasting this energy and if you buy something to replace it you are driving the demand for more energy in production of that new item
2. As organic waste (food, paper, etc.) breaks down in landfill it does so without oxygen and produces methane (CH4), which has a global warming impact 21 times that of carbon dioxide

Cut down. Reducing your consumption reduces both the embedded energy lost and the amount going to waste.

• Do you really need to print in the office - can you read it off the computer screen instead? If you are printing, are you printing double-sided - or at a reduced scale to fit multiple pages on one printed page?
• Do you need lots of big, glossy brochures - can you produce something smaller, simpler and then direct people to an internet address?
• Is there leftover food after meetings, conferences, etc.? Monitor this and reduce the amount you order in the future.
• Do you really need a new computer / mobile phone / insert other workplace gadget here? If a new item will reduce emissions in the long-term or if it's necessary for business operations that's OK, but don't rush out to get the latest and greatest if your current model works just fine. If you do need to replace something remember to recycle the old one.

When making purchases check if the item is produced locally? If the answer is no, check if there is a local alternative. The greenhouse gas emissions from long distance transport add significantly to increased carbon emissions.

Repair, refill and re-use items where possible. If you do upgrade, your older products may still be useful to another business, school, community group, etc. Ask around to find out if someone else can make use of your disused equipment.

Recycle materials instead of sending them to landfill - this means the materials are recovered and fed back into the system to make new products, reducing both the emissions released from waste and the need to source virgin materials. Recycling programs are available for most office supplies and equipment, construction materials and much more.

Four reasons to recycle

• Every metric ton of paper recycled saves 17 trees and uses 40 percent less energy, and 50 percent less water. If all household paper/cardboard were recycled, 750 000 cubic metres of landfill space would be saved a year, saving local authorities R60-million a year in collection and landfill costs. The energy saved from paper recycling in a year is sufficient to provide electricity to 512 homes for a year. (Source: Paper Recycling Association of SA)
• Glass is 100 percent recyclable but is not biodegradable. The raw materials for glass – sand, soda and lime – all have to be dug from the earth and melted together at very high temperatures. Energy is saved by recycling. The energy saved from recycling just one bottle will power a 100-watt light bulb for almost an hour. Every ton of glass recycled also saves 1, 2 tons of raw materials. (Source: The Glass Recycling Company)
• Cans are 100 percent recyclable. They are melted down to make new steel. This reduces the need to mine new iron ore and saves on the energy used to mine and process it. More than 36 000 tons of high-grade steel is recovered for re-smelting a year. (Source: Collect-a-can)
• A total of 562-million PET bottles were recovered for recycling in 2007 alone. This removed 19 000 tons of plastic from landfill, but that was only 24 percent of the PET bottles made that year. Recycling a ton of PET containers saves 7, 4 cubic metres of landfill space. 19 x 500ml PET bottles can be recycled into enough fibre filling for a standard pillow. (Source: Petco)

Buy recycled products - or those with some recycled content at least, to reduce the demand for virgin materials.

For materials that require intensive primary processing (i.e. steel, plastic and aluminium), recycling can reduce emissions by about two tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of product.

The design and construction of a commercial building strongly impacts the long term environmental performance of the building.

Additional time and resources invested in the early stages of a construction or refurbishment project can lead to significant reductions in costs and greenhouse gas emissions during both construction and operation of a commercial building.

How to avoid and reduce emissions

• Shade - nature's cool tool! Awnings, eaves, trees, shade sails and building aspect can all provide shade and reduce the amount of summer heat that penetrates windows and external walls. This will reduce your reliance on air conditioning and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with artificial cooling.
• Open windows if you can. Natural air flow will help to cool the office and also reduce your reliance on the air conditioner. Many business parks are incorporating ornamental lakes - take advantage of them if you can, air that flows over water can reduce its temperature even further.
• Take advantage of natural light by placing desks (or other areas where people spend most of their time) near windows and moving meeting spaces to internal areas of the building where artificial light can be used only as needed.
• Zone your heating, lighting and air conditioning systems. Install timers and / or sensors as well to control when these systems operate. There is no sense having lights, cooling or heating going overnight, during weekends or even during the day in areas where nobody is actually working. The upfront costs are generally recouped within one year due to the on-going savings on energy costs.
• Install task lighting if you have a workforce that works outside the traditional "9 to 5" regime. Efficient local area lighting means whole banks of overhead lights don't need to be turned on for one or two staff.
• Insulate. Prevent (or minimise) the transference of heat and cold between your building and the outside environment, making the inside environment more pleasant and reducing the need for artificial heating and cooling.
• Select materials carefully. Try to re-use existing materials, source recycled materials or those from sustainable / renewable sources, and look for locally made products. Plan projects thoroughly and work with materials carefully to reduce wastage.
• Location - consider the location of your suppliers, clients and staff when choosing a location for your workplace. Positioning your workplace close to the people / businesses you work with will reduce the emissions associated with transportation and freight.

There are many other energy efficiency and environmental considerations that can be incorporated into the building design and construction, and even refurbishment projects - in most cases the on-going operational costs will be reduced and the environment will be more comfortable for occupants.

Mobile phones, the internet and email have all helped to create a fast-paced business environment and we have similar expectations for the distribution of products and materials associated with our businesses.

But this demand for fast delivery comes at a cost to the environment. Transporting goods by air freight generates 0.57 kilograms of CO2-e per metric tonne of material for every kilometre travelled, while transporting via sea freight generates just 0.01 kg CO2-e per tonne per km (GHG Protocol Mobile Combustion CO2 Emissions Calculation Tool, 2005)

So the speed of air freight needs to be weighed up against its greater impact on global greenhouse gas concentrations, with 57 times the emissions of the slower sea freight alternative.

How to avoid and reduce emissions

• Consider the real 'need' for immediate or fast-tracked delivery - can you wait for a regular scheduled delivery instead of requesting an additional trip?
• Is there a local motorcycle courier service for delivering small items short distances?
• Can you plan business activities or monitor sales patterns to allow for lower emissions, but longer timeframe freight options? Shipping items overseas is much better for the climate, but obviously takes much longer.
• Plan your deliveries outside of peak periods on the roads - prevent wasting fuel in stop-start traffic. This will also save valuable time.
• Try to reduce the number of empty vehicles on the roads. Develop a multi-directional distribution system instead, returning waste or carrying different products on the way back. Make use of a freight matching service to find an available truck for your freight, or freight for your empty truck.
• Educate your clients about the emissions intensity of fast-tracked deliveries and encourage them to plan around lower emission deliveries too. Rail and sea freight offer significant emissions savings over air-freight.