Sustainability and The Apollo Effect

This month I have had the privilege of delivering my thoughts to Facilities Managers from key businesses in Utilities, Telecoms and IT.

The document below gives some extracts from these speeches. I share with you my thoughts on the challenges ahead on our quest to organise businesses to comply with forthcoming regulations for carbon management. Pulling on some analogies and insights into practical methods of engaging mindsets and embedding cultural change for to improvement of business, maintain competitiveness and ultimately survive.

This challenge is becoming ever more complex. For businesses to remain competitive and survive in a changing world sustainable working practices now need to be embedded into the heart of organisational culture – from CEO to cleaner. But how do we relate that bigger picture of business survival in a changing world to the ordinary employee going about their day job?

Sustainability & The Apollo Effect - By Debby Lloyd

By Debby Lloyd
Managing Director, EcoSearch

Energy Saving Week 2009

Energy Saving Week is an annual event hosted by the Energy Saving Trust. This year the event runs from 19th – 25th October and will be important for our pockets as well as the planet.

In the spirit of the event, the EcoSearch team brings you their top tips for saving energy;

Debby Lloyd, Managing Director

“for all those with teenagers - outsource them to university and watch your electricity bills halve! If you have latch-key kids - when you arrive home from work to find they have used the "advance" heating button on the boiler and the thermostat is set on 30 degrees! Open your wall thermostats and set the stopper at 18 degrees - force them to use jumpers! Oh, and turn off the gas on the gas fire so they can't use that either. Use a slow cooker in the winter instead of the oven - Lakeland has a great little gadget called a Remoska that literally uses the energy from a light bulb to effectively cook food!”

Phillip Clement, Director

“Work longer hours - this has numerous energy saving benefits. You use the lights and heating at work not at home. Your drive into the office and home will be in less traffic so you will use less petrol. When you get home you're so knackered you'll want to go to bed without any dinner which means you won't use the cooker and you won't need to put the lights on and you have to get up so early you won't feel like breakfast and you can wait till you get to the office to have a cup of tea so you won't need to boil the kettle.”

Mark Sawyer, Senior Partner

I recommend taking the Home Energy Check questionnaire via the Energy Saving Trust website. Considering my home working, mother and child at home all day every day with the heating on, I was surprised to get the results back and find that on an A-G rating I am currently a C. I have currently done everything possible that they suggest in their report email to reduce my carbon footprint except for getting thicker loft insulation and changing some more light bulbs... A worthwhile use of 5 minutes, especially if you are very new to thinking about saving energy.”

Clare Buxton, Wind Energy Sector Lead

“Don’t leave appliances on Standby and remember not to leave laptops and mobiles phones on charge unnecessarily. I always find myself going around the house behind the rest of the family turning off the things they’re finished with like computers, the TV and games consoles.”

Katharine Robinson, Research Associate

“Don’t put on any laundry unless you have a full load – one full load uses a lot less energy that two half loads – it’s better to wait. I have never used a tumble dryer either. I try to dry as much clothes as possible outside on the washing line, or if it’s just too rainy use an indoor airer.”

We did a series of blog posts last year for Energy Saving Week – you may find there interesting too;

• Energy Saving Week - Saving energy around the office and at home
• Energy Saving Week - Greener Driving
• Energy Saving Week - Greener Shopping
• And as the end of October approaches, check out this post on Greening your Halloween.

We hope you save lots of pennies this week

The EcoSearch team

BWEA31 – 20th to 22nd October 2009

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) will be running its annual conference and exhibition next week in Liverpool. The event enjoys a well balanced combination of thought-leadership and focused conference sessions, as well as an opportunity to network, learn about new developments, and identify new business opportunities.

I had a conversation the week before EWEA’s Offshore Conference in Stockholm, earlier this year, with a client who I’ve known for 18 months now. He asked me why I wasn’t going to be attending. I replied “I’m far too busy, I have too many open assignments and I can’t afford to take a day, let alone two, out of the office…”. He responded that he had also thought the same thing on many occasions, but that each time he thought it, he reminded himself of the intangible, but undeniable, value that comes from solidifying relationship and building new ones in person. He was right.

And so I’ll be at BWEA31, with the intention to get as much value from it as possible, and to have a fun doing it! I will be attending on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a focus on meeting new people and keeping abreast of new entrants, new developments and new projects in the sector, as well as using the opportunity to meet with existing candidates and clients alike.

Often we are asked by industry professionals to conduct Independent Career Appraisals, and the BWEA conference is an ideal place to do this, to maximise on time and talk to people when they’re out of the office environment and not worrying about the next conference call or a deadline they’ve got to hit. There are plenty of quiet corners to find a seat and grab a coffee.

If you’d like to meet up to ask me questions, share information, or find out about what we do and how we do it, please do use BWEA31 as the perfect opportunity.

Drop me an email to clare.buxton@ecosearchglobal.com or contact me via twitter @CEBUX.

By Clare Buxton
Wind Energy Sector Lead, EcoSearch

Green and Renewable Energy Events - November 2009

We are still in the heart of events season. November is full to bursting with Renewable Energy, Cleantech and Carbon events around the globe.

Here we highlight all those events taking place in Europe – there simply isn’t room to do them all! You can also see and download our full list of global events via scribd.com.

If you know of an event we missed, please let us know and we will add it to the list.

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Featured Event:

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ETH EnergieTage Hessen 2009
30th October - 1st November 2009 – Wetzlar, Germany

Green Monday (2degrees)
2nd November 2009 - London, UK

The Energy Institute (EI) Evening Lecture - Energy Efficiency for Real – Beyond Audit to Implementation
2nd November 2009 - UK

Ocean Power - Accelerating innovation in Ocean Energy technologies
2nd & 3rd November 2009 – Lisbon, Portugal

The Green Business Awards 2009
3rd November 2009 – London, UK

National Energy Foundation - Wood Fuel Heating & CHP Training
3rd November 2009 – Milton Keynes, UK

Substation Technology 2009
3rd & 4th November 2009 – Birmingham, UK

Follow @TheIET on Twitter

RENEXPO Eastern Europe
3rd – 5th November 2009 – Kiev, Ukraine

Green Supply Chain '09
5th & 6th November 2009 – Leeds, UK

RENEX Expo
5th – 8th November 2009 – Istanbul, Turkey

University of Reading Public Lecture Series: Feed the world - climate change and global food security
6th November 2009 – Reading, UK

Innovative Futures - Low carbon, low energy, sustainable, innovative systems & designs
6th – 8th November 2009 – Coventry, UK

Follow @EcoFuture on Twitter

Environment '09
9th & 10th November 2009 – London, UK

14th European Biosolids and Organic Resources Conference, Workshop and Exhibition
9th – 11th November 2009 – Leeds, UK

Essential CleanTech Investor Summit
10th November 2009 – London, UK

Green Drinks – London
10th November 2009 – London, UK

Hargould EcoShowcase Bristol - Sustainable Building Product Exhibition
10th November 2009 – Bristol, UK

Green IT Expo
10th & 11th November 2009 – London, UK

DatacenterDynamics - London 2009 Conference
10th & 11th November 2009 – London, UK

Scottish Renewables Grid Seminar - Plugging it in
12th November 2009 – Inverness, UK

3rd European Renewable Energy Policy Conference
16th & 17th November 2009 – Brussels, Belgium

IWEA - Project Management Course

17th November 2009 - Naas, Co.Kildare, Ireland

Follow @IWEA on Twitter

3rd International Tidal Energy Summit
17th & 18th November 2009 – London, UK

Kinnarps - Think Green, Save Money

18th November - Reading, UK (and more UK locations throughout the month)

3rd Annual European Carbon Capture & Storage Summit
18th & 19th November 2009 – London, UK

Green Strategy
19th November 2009 – London, UK

Energy Institute Awards 2009
19th November 2009 – London, UK

Wind Power Turkey
23rd & 24th November 2009 – Istanbul, Turkey

Subsea Europe 09
24th November 2009 – London, UK

Bridging the Energy Gap

24th November 2009 - London, UK

4th International Renewable Energy Storage Conference IRES 2009
24th & 25th November 2009 – Berlin, Germany

Carbon Reduction Commitment Compliance Event
25th November 2009 – London, UK

CHP Association (CHPA) Annual Conference and Awards Dinner
25th November 2009 – London, UK

Wind Turbine Data - A One-Day Debate & Networking Forum
26th November 2009 – Hamburg, Germany

Hargould EcoShowcase Milton Keynes - Sustainable Building Product Exhibition
26th November 2009 – Milton Keynes, UK

RENEXPO(R) Austria
26th – 28th November 2009 – Salzburg, Austria

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You may also be interested in October's events list.

A similar list for December will be published shortly.