We are making steps to dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of our workforce in order to combat climate change.
The key focus is to minimise the impact of our business on the environment and help every employee play their part in recycling, saving energy and reducing waste.
To reduce the carbon emissions of commuting staff, we have recently procured an electric Hyundai Kona to the company's fleet and installed EV charging points to our three offices across Northern Ireland.
Additionally, measures have been taken to create a team of staff who can innovate new ways to encourage colleagues to reduce their carbon footprint. The Green Team is made up of 28 members from across the Energia Group of which Power NI is part of, who meet up monthly to monitor and develop initiatives for a more sustainable future, which are then rolled out to colleagues.
Green Team initiatives include sharing tips on reducing printing, lighting, temperature control, transport and waste through a bi-monthly newsletter which keeps the business up to date with recent projects and includes useful advice to help us all live a more sustainable lifestyle.
Staff are now adopting practices which can cut down an individual's energy consumption at home as well as work. These include -
Switching sites to half hourly meters and setting up processes for monitoring and analysing energy usage in office buildings. Updating lights to LEDs where possible and encouraging everyone to turn off lights when not needed. Promoting bike to work, electric vehicles and car sharing which will help reduce our transport emissions. Switching all copy paper to 100% recycled. Reducing general waste and maximise recycling by installing organic bins at all sites.
All these actions have been designed for easy adoption, however one of the key actions which Energia Group has made is the installation of EV points in its three NI sites, Mick O’Reilly (Power NI Innovation Specialist) says:
“EV points are a real game changer to how people commute during their working day. The points allow people with plug-in vehicles to charge their cars while they are at work and reducing the need to top up with petrol or diesel. Therefore, we anticipate that staff’s easy access to EV charge points will encourage people to consider an EV in the future.
“As a Green Team member, we emphasise that the small steps to reduce waste, emissions and pollution is in our control, which is why we have developed ideas that are cost effective and simple to apply to anyone’s everyday routine.”
