How ISO 14001 can help your business

The wasteful use of energy, especially when it has come from burning fossil fuels, is causing serious damage to the global environment. This website is designed to offer you some basic Energy Advice, on ways in which you can reduce your impact on the environment - and save some money at the same time!  various allied services 

Before we start, it is helpful to consider the right order to do things. So it is best to try and save energy by:

•  avoiding wasting energy, then  
• using energy more efficiently, then  
• using energy from clean renewable sources.

The first steps - avoiding waste - cost nothing, and immediately start saving you money. Some of them may involve some changes to your lifestyle, such as walking or taking the bus rather than driving off in your car. Others are simple matters of habit - like switching off lights when they are not in use, and checking that the room thermostat on your heating system is set correctly. This is sometimes known simply as energy conservation.  

Most of the next steps in the stage, using energy efficiently, involve a modest outlay. Some of the suggestions cost just a few pounds, and will pay for themselves within a year. Others require quite significant investment, or may involve professional installation. However almost all energy efficiency measures will eventually pay for themselves in lower fuel bills.

Once you are using energy efficiently without waste, you can really start to think about where that energy is coming from. Clean, renewable energy sources - often with the sun as the ultimate source of the energy - are all around us. Sometimes they are a little difficult to capture, or more expensive than digging polluting fossil fuels out of the ground. But there are a surprising number of small-scale renewable energy sources that won't cost the earth, and can be installed at an average UK home or business. And for the energy that you are not producing yourself, you can look at buying certified green electricity.

Some people want to rush in and use renewable energy from the very start. This is fine, but is likely to cost you more than by first looking carefully at how you are using energy. As most countries don't yet have enough renewables developed to meet demand, it is best to use this type of energy as efficiently and wisely as possible.