SUSTAINABILITY CASE STUDY

The Power of
Energy Champions!

Background

Techbuyer has pledged to be net zero by 2050 across Scope 1, 2 and 3. With carbon capture being in its infancy, energy efficiency is critical in reducing our emissions to the absolute so that offset and carbon capture play as small a part as possible.

Techbuyer sells on a platform of environmental impact reduction, which means that we are committed to operating in a sustainable way. This includes reducing our own environmental impact and being transparent by publishing our energy use and carbon emissions data on our website.

Challenge

Techbuyer wanted to increase energy efficiency as part of our Net Zero Pathway. We also wanted to demonstrate we were more than a provider of sustainable products, so needed normalised results per operation or per £ turnover. We paid for energy monitoring hardware to be installed in key areas of our warehouse and our offices, enabling a more granular approach to monitoring energy usage. However, this did not give concrete advice on where and how to introduce optimisations.

Solution

We decided to use the granular information provided by the submeters installed to create a behaviour change campaign within the company.

The first step was to analyse the information and identify areas of wastage – equipment being left on after office closing hours, for example. We then calculated the potential carbon and cost savings for the wider business over the course of a year if we were to enact these changes.

We began a weekly email campaign informing UK users about our energy usage in various areas of the business, highlighting increased usage when it occurred, and any considerable reductions after calls to action.

Our marketing team created energy saving posters and stickers reminding staff to conserve energy wherever possible. These posters and stickers are displayed around the offices and warehouse in key touchpoint locations, for example by light switches and exit doors. They have also been used to highlight to staff that their individual equipment has been left on unnecessarily.

Finally, energy champions were recruited in each office. After receiving training in the form of information sheets, they are generating weekly reminders to their teams and reporting back centrally with how each team is doing.

Results

The graph below shows the 6-month average daily power usage before and after the analysis began for our head office, demonstrating a 14% decrease.

The graph below shows our daily usage across key distribution boards and circuits. This clearly displays a downward trend on circuits that are being actively considered.

Graph Key:

3D Print and Ortial- E (Wh)

DB 5 Switch- E (Wh)

GOT Desk - E (Wh)

AC All Office (ExceptAC Unit 4) - E (Wh)

DB 6 (First Floor OfficeSockets) Switch - E (Wh)

GOT Laptop Config - E (Wh)

DB 3 (Warehouse Lights) - E (Wh)

DB4 Switch - E (Wh)

Mez Meeting Room - E (Wh)

DB (RMA Board) - E (Wh)

DB 8 (E-Waste and Facilities) - E (Wh)

GOT Racks - E (Wh)

Reflections

Using energy champions to extend the reach and share knowledge with other divisions around the world has been very powerful.

Engaging people in specific departments and showing them the energy use figures that relate directly to their actions is the best method that we have found to engage with them. Some team members relate to raw data whereas some need graphical representation to understand and learn from.

The next steps in the project are to relate energy use to productivity by department and examine process/equipment improvements that will lead to greater efficiencies, this will also normalise the results which is key as productivity is dependent on workload which isn’t always linear.