Easy Money for the Retail Sector

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Easy Money for the Retail Sector

• 26th October 2006
• West Sussex Sustainable Business Partnership
• Horsham Traders Guild
• Horsham District Council

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Easy Money for the Retail Sector
Anya Ledwith ESHCon Ltd
Delivered by
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Easy money. how?

• Use your resources efficiently and reduce waste
  its the easiest way to increase your profits
• Putting in place simple, no-cost and low-cost
  measures can
• reduce waste costs by up to 1 of turnover
• cut water and sewerage bills by up to 20
• reduce energy bills by up to 20
• improve your environmental performance and public
  image.

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Why should you?

• Every year the UK produces enough waste to fill
  the Royal Albert Hall every hour
• About 85 of that is sent straight to landfill
• Every person uses 160 litres of water each day,
  but we only drink 1 of it!
• A leaking tap with a 5mm stream wastes 528 m3 of
  water a year, costing over 1000
• Electricity prices are rocketing typical
  increases this year of 50 are set to continue
• A typical small shop has an average annual energy
  bill of 5,000 and could be wasting over 400 a
  year just by using inefficient equipment, leaving
  equipment and lighting on, and heating/cooling
  too much

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• Water
• Are you pouring profits
• down the drain?

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Pouring profits down the drain

• Worse drought in the SE since the 1920s - with
  domestic hosepipe bans and a threat to business
  use, it is even more important to save water now
• In the average business, over 60 of water is
  used in the washroom, where substantial savings
  can often be made
• Water costs are expected to increase nationally
  by 14 over the next 3 years
• Businesses addressing their water consumption can
  see financial savings of up to 20 at little or
  no extra cost

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Saving water

• Check your pipes for leaks
• Fit controls on urinal systems (can reduce water
  use and costs by 50)
• Repair dripping taps and turn off taps fully.
• Fit push-button taps (use half the water of
  conventional taps), which cant be left on
  accidentally.
• Fit Save-a-Flush bags to toilet cisterns to save
  1 litre per flush
• Install low flush toilets
• Install a water butt to use free rain water in
  garden areas your floral displays

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Waste Are you tipping away your profits?
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Tipping away your profits

• Waste costs UK industry at least 15 billion per
  year
• Most waste goes straight to landfill sites, but
  these are quickly filling up, which leads to
  price rises
• Landfill tax is currently 18 per tonne and will
  increase by 3 each year
• Remember the waste hierarchy - Eliminate -
  Reduce - Re-use - Recycle

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Eliminate

• Order just-in-time delivery to avoid unnecessary
  storage and unsold goods
• Avoid over-ordering by taking account of local
  factors and sale patterns
• Agree a returns policy with suppliers, for
  undamaged and damaged/faulty items
• Minimise food waste by
• careful ordering and defrosting of minimum
  quantities of frozen food
• a sale or return policy for cakes, sandwiches,
  yoghurts, milk
• Train staff to open packaging correctly and
  segregate waste packaging at source.
• Make every effort to reduce contamination and
  damage so that the packaging is suitable for
  re-use or recycling.

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Reduce Re-use

• Review the waste before you throw it out
• Is it really waste or can it be recycled or
  re-used?
• Look at what youre using
• Any materials being used inefficiently or with
  excessive wastage?
• Choose minimally packaged products
• Ask your suppliers to supply products in less
  packaging and take excess packaging away with
  them when they deliver.
• Dont use plastic cups, plates, cutlery etc.
• Compost kitchen waste

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Recycle

• Recycle various types of waste
• glass, cans, paper, card, plastic bottles, toner
  cartridges, fluorescent tubes, mobile phones, CDs
  and batteries
• If your quantities of recycling are small, get
  together with other local companies to make
  collection more viable
• Close the loop by buying recycled products
  wherever possible

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Dispose

• Check that your waste bins are used efficiently,
  or you may be paying for fresh air
• Flatten or compact cardboard and other bulky
  wastes
• Reduce the number of bins supplied by your waste
  contractor and/or reduce the frequency of
  collection
• Remember to renegotiate your costs
• Keep bin area clean tidy, storing all types of
  waste correctly

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Duty of Care

• Pay special attention to hazardous waste, such as
  ICT equipment, fluorescent tubes, paints, oils
  and sanitary waste
• Ensure you have Duty of Care documentation to
  cover all waste collection, including recycling
• These include
• Waste Contract
• Transfer Notes
• Carrier License
• Hazardous Waste Site Permit

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Energy Are your profits burning away?
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Burning your profits

• Energy consumption is easy to control. Most
  companies can reduce energy costs by up to 20
  with little outlay
• (the same as a 5 increase in sales)
• Utility price rises of at least 50 have been
  seen recently
• Business energy use emissions account for over
  40 of UK greenhouse gas emissions
• Businesses therefore have a key role in
  addressing climate change

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Lighting 1

• Lighting accounts for 20 - 60 of retails total
  energy costs
• Make good use of natural daylight
• This costs nothing and can reduce your lighting
  costs by 15.
• Where daylight is not sufficient for display
  purposes, switch lights on only at the start of
  trading hours.
• Turn it off - Display lighting generates
  excessive heat, which puts a strain on air
  conditioning
• Use low energy bulbs which generate less heat
• Otherwise minimise the amount of time and the
  number of lights that are on
• Install presence detector lighting controls in
  places not in constant use, e.g. toilets or store
  rooms

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Lighting 2

• Select lighting for required brightness / colour
  for given tasks
• Sales areas are brighter other sections can be
  lower
• Replace tungsten light bulbs with energy
  efficient ones
• Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) have a similar
  light output and use only 20-25 of the energy
• They will last up to eight times longer
• Reduced maintenance costs from less time wasted
  replacing them
• Halogen spot lights give poor overall lighting,
  are particularly energy hungry and dont last
  very long
• Replace blackened, flickering, dim or failed
  fluorescent tubes with tri-phosphor coated ones
  for a more natural, brighter light
• Replace T12 tubes (38mm diameter) with slimmer
  26mm T8s

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Lighting 3
Source Carbon Trust
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Heating

• Heating accounts for 40 of energy use in a
  typical retail environment
• Switch it off - In summer do you need all your
  boilers on?
• If you have several boilers, the smaller one is
  probably for hot water only
• Switch off other boilers to save 5 of water
  heating costs
• Turn it down - In colder months your customers
  will feel uncomfortable if your stores
  overheated
• Provide warmer staff uniforms, reduce
  temperatures and encourage customers to spend
  more time shopping
• Reducing temperatures by just 1C can cut fuel
  consumption by 10
• Keep doors windows closed, to prevent warm
  cooled air escaping
• Install insulation (walls, roof and pipes) and
  draught-proofing to reduce heat loss
• Reduce water temperature
• (minimum of 60C to avoid Legionella bacteria)

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Cooling Ventilation

• Air conditioning can be very expensive - take
  advantage of natural ventilation and free cooling
  to halve energy costs
• Set the temperature correctly
• Lower settings require more cooling energy
• Set your temperature for air conditioning to 24C
  or higher
• This means it wont operate at the same time as
  the heating, so you wont be paying double
• Turn it off - Ensure fans and pumps are switched
  off when not in use, as these consume the
  majority of energy
• Only use them during opening hours - fitting
  simple timers can help

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Refrigeration Equipment

• Refrigeration can account for up to 50 of a
  stores energy costs
• Dont over fill - Too many products on cabinet
  shelves require more energy to chill
• Cold air sinks - Cold air from open-fronted
  refrigerators sinks to the floor and into your
  store. Fit blinds or covers to save up to 30 on
  running costs
• Switch it off - If storing non-perishable goods,
  like carbonated drinks, in refrigerated cabinets,
  turn them off after hours
• Display cabinet lights should also be turned off

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Energy supply

• Compile your bills and review annual usage
• Take monthly meter readings and compare bills
  against readings
• Check night time consumption readings to see if
  equipment / lighting is left on unnecessarily
• Check your energy rating is correct and
  renegotiate your tariff if appropriate
• Buy green electricity (which is exempt from part
  or all of the Climate Change Levy)

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Policy and Targets

• Get commitment from top level
• Develop an action plan
• Develop a policy
• Set targets
• Train your staff
• Monitor how youre doing
• Celebrate your successes