Ideas Flow

Welcome to the second entry to RYB:Konsult’s blog of the ‘CIBSE 100 days of carbon clean up’

On the morning of Monday 17th September our ‘Carbon Champion’ Mark Bryan started the campaign by giving a presentation that introduced staff to the aims and targets of the campaign. Staff were informed about the measures they could introduce to cut their carbon footprint in the five areas which have been highlighted by CIBSE; Lighting; Stationery; Office Equipment; Small Power and Heating and Cooling.

Once the various options had been discussed and a team of carbon officers were selected, one member from each of RYB:Konsult’s teams. These carbon officers are to maintain and uphold the commitments made from the ‘carbon team’, within their own teams. It was agreed that the Carbon Officers were to regularly meet to discuss progress and to promote any new ideas.

Before the first Carbon Officers meeting it was decided to work out RYB:Konsult’s current carbon emissions and conduct an energy audit. This information will provide the benchmark figures for the measurement of the campaign. CIBSE’s TM22 was completed and sent to CIBSE, this transpired RYB:Konsult’s carbon emissions from its energy usage to be 51 kgCO2/m2, 10 % better than good practice. However the results also showed the electricity demand to be 3 % worse than good practice and so it was decided the main focus should be to reduce our electrical demand. RYB:Konsult then took this a step further by working out it’s Carbon Footprint for the financial year 2006-7, which included the companies transport journeys including employees daily commute and the water usage. This proved to be 115,339 kgCO2 per annum, RYB are currently investigating ways of off-setting these emissions.

Having decided to focus on our electrical demand the first step was to replace all old energy intensive computer monitors with new LCD screens. This saw a preliminary drop in wattage from 130 Watts to 100 Watts per PC station per hour, this should have a dramatic shift in the electrical consumption.

Secondly, it was decided to install blinds to the outward facing windows, this measure will reduce solar gains in the summer and limit the need for electrical cooling.

The first ‘Carbon Officers’ meeting occurred 26th September, which produced an hour long meeting discussing the values of various options as defined by CIBSE. The meeting produced a series of actions which are plausible for RYB:Konsult to achieve, including;

PIR lighting for main office area;
- Timer switches for hot water cylinders
- All unnecessary printers are turned off;
- Conduct an investigation of small renewables;
- To replace the standard stationary order to more recycled products;
- Carbon Officers to make sure PC’s stand-by buttons are switched off.

Various weekly activities were then decided to promote the 100 days of carbon clean up, which include a week ban of lift usage, floor box switch off and a cooler ban.