The following materials have been drafted to be included in a suggested Eco-Advice Section for Redbridge CVS’s website to assist their subscribers to be greener and cut costs.

Sponsored by the City of London’s City Bridge Trust’s “Greening the Third Sector” programme.

The suggested materials for web-pages include:

  1. Top Ten Eco-Tips for Charities
  1. Green Human Resources Advice
  1. Energy Saving Tips for Redbridge Charities
  1. Greener Events Checklist
  1. Sample Environmental Policy for Charities
  1. Sample Green Purchasing Policy.
  1. Free Eco-audits

Free eco-audits for Redbridge and London based charities are currently available by application to the City Bridge Trust:

  1. Central Heating

Ensure modern, efficient central-heating boilers, effective and working controls, TRV valves and timers for central heating systems and hot water are in place. Low cost loans available from The Carbon Trust:

  1. Insulation

Ensure all cavity walls, loft insulation and basic draught-proofing has been carried out. These can also qualify for Carbon Trust loans.

  1. Correct Temperatures

Ensure premises are heated no higher than recommended CIBSE winter heating standard (190C), unless being used by elderly infirm (210C) and air-conditioning set no lower than 250C.

(Every 10C higher adds up to 10% to heating bill.)

  1. Correct Timings

Ensure central heating timers are set correctly and are off at least 1.5 hours before closing and off at weekends. Turn down radiators in all relevant corridors, staircases, landings, bathrooms etc to frost-free level and place insulating-foil placed behind all radiators on outside walls.

  1. Recycled Paper

All paper products should be made from recycled paper.

Every 17 reams of photocopying paper consumes one tree.

  1. Recycling

Comprehensive, well labelled, easily accessed recycling facilities should be in place and on-site composting where possible.

  1. Green Electricity Supplier

Switch to a green electricity provider such as Good Energy or Ecotricity who only supplies green electricity made from renewables including hydro, solar and wind, using savings made from energy efficiency. This will eliminate all CO2 emissions for electricity consumption.

  1. Efficient Lighting

Install efficient lighting systems and 5 Watt Led desk-lamps, phase out all incandescent bulbs, halogen lamps and inefficient T8 fluorescent lighting tubes. Place relevant light/movement/timers in areas that are often left lit when empty.

  1. Water Efficiency

Ensure that all bathrooms have water-efficient controls including push button spray taps/showers, aerating shower-heads, flow restrictors, water efficient or waterless urinals and ultra-efficient dual-flush siphon w.c.s if replacing existing w.c.s. A single urinal without modern controls can waste up to 250,000 litres per annum.

Further information and resources listed at:
Information on grants available: Energy Saving Advice Service: 0300 123 1234

Essential to the greening of any charity is the co-operation and commitment of their staff to this goal.

The following HR suggestions should be considered for adoption.

As every organisation’s HR practices and structures will vary, please adapt them to your particular circumstances.

  1. Staff contracts should include a provision requiring that:
    “All employees are expected to assist the charity in delivering its commitment to being an environmentally responsible organisation, in how they carry out their day-to-day functions as members of staff”.
  1. The job-specification for the Chief-Executive should include a requirement to oversee the charity’s environmental performance and to report on it annually to the board, including key environmental data.
  1. Relevant job-specifications throughout the charity should include relevant eco-items relating to their job e.g. facility manager’s tasks in relation to energy and water efficiency or the post that includes responsibility for recycling or eco-data collection.
  1. The job-specification of those entrusted with purchasing authority should include responsibility to ensure purchasing decisions are in line with adopted green purchasing policy.
  1. Annual appraisals should include assessment of how the staff member has made progress on their responsibilities for greening the organisation.
  1. Induction procedures for new staff/volunteers/tenants/users/clients should be altered to include procedures adopted to implement this policy of environmental responsibility e.g. energy efficiency and recycling procedures.
  1. If the charity has a staff handbook, ensure a section on eco-procedures in the charity are included.

Heating

Temperature Settings

The CIBSE recommended guidelines for office desk-based staff is 19C for heating in winter, and 25C for air-conditioning in summer.

The recommended temperature for living rooms for elderly or non-ambient clients is 21C. For healthy and ambient people it is 19C.

This is a crucial issue as every degree above 19C in winter uses up to 10% extra energy costs and 10% on your climate crisis gas emissions from your heating.

Purchase a simple digital thermometer to ensure heating does not go above 19C.

The recommended temperature for hot-water is 60C. Do not go above this. It has to be heated to this temperature to ensure the avoidance of legionella.

Heating Times

It is important that any charity premises are heated only during hours occupied; heating unoccupied rooms is a very common cause of energy wastage.

Ideally if the building is reasonably insulated and draught-proofed, the heating should only have to come on between half to an hour before staff arrival time, though it will require a bit extra on a Monday morning, if the building has been unoccupied over the weekend.

Similarly it should be possible to turn it off at least an hour to two hours before closing. In addition there may be potential for turning it off during the middle of the day.

You will need to experiment with these timings and with how long a break you can take in the middle of the day, as they depend on the thermal performance of yourpremises.

Double-check that the timer is set to ensure that the building is not heated over the weekend, if unoccupied. This is frequently the case with many charities. We have found many with the system on 24/7!

Other Heating Tips

  1. If you have cavity walls and loft spaces, ensure that they have been insulated. This is one of the most cost-effective actions you can take.

(Up to 50% of heat can be last through walls and up to 25% through the loft if not insulated.) Such insulation can pay back within 2-3 years and is one of the most cost effective actions you can take.

  1. Ensure wherever practical that radiators are kept free of furniture or other goods.
  1. Ensure that your radiators have working TRV valves.
  1. Ensure that all basic draught proofing of windows and doors is in place.
  1. Place insulation reflectors behind all radiators on outside walls and all heating pipes and joints (especially in the boiler room) are insulated.

Electricity

  1. PCs and laptops have a range of power-consumption settings. Ensure staff are trained to use these to minimise power consumption or alternatively get the staff member responsible for IT to set them to the most energy efficient mode. Should be set to this as standard when initially supplied.
  1. When replacing PCs, consider replacing them with laptops. In addition to the almost 2/3s saving in running costs, they also use a fraction of the energy used by PCs when in standby and so also reduce heat-gain in summer in the office.
  1. Buy at least A++ rated white goods such as fridges when replacing them.
  1. Ensure all photocopiers; printers etc are turned off at night and at weekends.
  1. Microsoft offers a Free Cloud system for charities. This could enable the charities to get rid of all of the servers in the communications room and can reduce electricity consumption for server functions by up to 90%.
  1. Ensure any electrical immersion heaters or hot-drinks machines have properly set timers installed.

Lighting

  1. Ensure all old-fashioned in-efficient fluorescent lighting tubes are replaced in future with latest T5 or LED technology, which uses about 30% less energy.

This is crucial as office lighting can represent up to 50% of total office building electricity bills.

Old fashioned tube fittings can now have adapters installed to fit the smaller new tube sizes, so removing the expense of replacing the fittings to fit the new efficient but smaller tubes.

  1. Replace any remaining inefficient tungsten bulbs with energy saving bulbs or LEDs.
  1. Install movement/timer/light sensors in relevant areas where lighting is often left on but is usually unoccupied e.g. bathrooms, storerooms, staircases.
  1. Reduce need for any overhead lamps during daylight hours by using task/desk lamps. Desk lamps with GU 10 fittings can now be found that use from 2 to 6 watt LEDs and provide excellent task lighting.
  1. Do not install halogen spot-lamps as they are the most inefficient and therefore most expensive to run form of lighting. Replace existing halogen lamps with LED alternatives when they blow. A 50 watt halogen lamp will cost £16 a year during office hours, whilst a 5 watt LED desk-lamp will cost only £1.60.
  1. Ensure adequate switching is installed, so that unnecessary lights can be turned off.

Any events hosted by a charity are an opportunity for attendees to see your environmental good practice in action. This sample checklist may be useful.

Sample Event Checklist

  • Have a named person responsible at the event itself for ensuring that heating and lighting are being used efficiently.
  • Ensure recycling/waste facilities are readily available and clearly labelled as to what should and should not be placed in them.
  • Avoid disposable ware and cutlery if any catering provided.
  • Avoid supply of bottled water at any catered events and provide jugs of tap water instead.
  • Source organic and fair-trade products e.g. coffee, sugar and wines.
  • If providing catering, see if you can find a local organic low packaging caterer. One of our clients did this and it led to two successful small local businesses being set up by a staff member’s mother!
  • Only provide meat-free catering at catered events. (Livestock production is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions – 6 times more than aviation!)
  • If you do have to have fish on the menu, ensure that it is MSC certified, as being from a sustainable fishery.
  • Avoid tropical or imported fruit juices, which often have a disastrous imported water-footprint. Consider providing fresh local fruit and water instead.

It takes 1,000 litres to water to produce one litre of Orange Juice.

  • Seek to use only ultra-low energy LED stage lighting wherever possible.
  • Ask people to come using cycling and public transport by providing information to attendees on how to access venues by public transport and online cycle-routes.
  • Use e-invites rather than paper-invites.

3 Acorns Eco-Audits. September 2012

This is a sample environmental policy for a charity.
As the environmental impacts will vary from organisation to organisation, it will need to be adapted to your particular circumstances.

Charity X acknowledges the connection between the climate and other environmental crises and the threat of current and future homelessness, disease, food and water shortages and poverty for millions of people around the world, as well as the major damage being caused to our natural eco-systems.

It therefore recognises its responsibility to reduce its carbon and environmental footprints and formally commits itself to being an environmentally responsible charity.

To take this forward it commits to the following actions:

Management

1/Charity X mandates the CEO to take executive responsibility for taking forward and implementing this commitment.

They are also requested to report annually on progress made, including statistical information on Charity X’s annual:

  • Energy carbon footprint
  • Electricity
  • Water
  • Transport fuel
  • Gas
  • Total waste production
  • % of waste recycled
  • % vegetarian meals provided
  • Total paper consumption
  • % Recycled paper
  • % Renewable energy used
  • Any other relevant environmental criteria.

This annual environmental report will be presented at the same meeting as the annual accounts.

2/ Charity X’s annual impact statement will include a summary of this annual environmental audit of the charity.

3/ Progress on improvement of Charity X’s environmental performance will be a standard item at senior management meetings.

4/ All staff contracts will include a clause stating that staff will be expected to help Charity X in carrying out its aim of being an environmentally responsible organisation, in how they carry out their day-to-day duties.

5/ Induction procedures for new staff will include information on the charity’s environmental practices.

6/ Charity X will ask all our current and future suppliers for their environmental policies and for evidence of implementation of such policies and indicate that such performance will be used as criteria for supplier selection.

7/ Charity X will seek to have relevant environmental clauses included in any future contracts agreed with outside bodies.

8/ Charity X will include environmental responsibility training in any future staff training programmes, especially for those involved in providing advice to vulnerable clients.

9/ Charity X will observe existing environmental legislation as a minimum standard and seek to out-perform current legislative requirements where practical.

10/ Charity X will develop and maintain a sustainable transport policy for their staff, seeking to reduce unnecessary travel and making the transport that is necessary as sustainable as possible and will monitor progress annually.

This basic purchasing policy would need to be adapted to cover the particular range of items your charity buys.

Charity X commits itself to drawing up a green purchasing policy that requires staff to judge all purchasing decisions on the basis of a green purchasing hierarchy:

Reduce:

We will firstly question whether a purchase is strictly necessary and if it is, whether the amounts required could be reduced.

Re-use:

Secondly we will seek to buy re-used items in preference to new items where practical.

Recycle:

If new items have to be purchased, we will seek to buy the most eco-friendly option practical, whether buying locally, with zero or low packaging, made from recycled, non-toxic, bio-degradable or organic materials or more energy efficient.

We will only buy green renewable electricity.

We will only buy recycled paper products.

We will only buy eco-friendly cleaning materials.

We will only buy sustainable wood and fish products with FSC (forest stewardship council or MSC (Marine stewardship council) certification.

We will seek to avoid purchase of over-packaged products.

ReviewThis environmental policy, including the green purchasing policy shall be reviewed annually upon its adoption.

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