Eco-Friendly Workplace Energy Initiative Launches: Empowering Employees and Employers to Reduce Carbon Footprint and Enhance Wellbeing

Did you know that energy saving initiatives in the workplace are on the rise?

Residential Energy Services now offers workshops to businesses looking to reach their corporate sustainability goals, with employee energy advice sessions.

Sarah from Residential Energy Services sits down to talk about energy efficiency awareness in the workplace, why ESG training is so important and how these workshops are empowering employees to save energy in the workplace and save money on their household bills at the same time.

What is the UK energy price cap?

What is a workplace energy workshop?

We’ve introduced the Workplace Energy Advice Workshops as a means to push the message on sustainability as far and wide as possible.

It’s a hot topic and it will be for a long time forward now, with net zero targets and whatnot. So it’s here to stay. It’s here for the foreseeable. And it actually affects everybody, whether you’re a business or an individual, because ultimately we want to have an impact on the environment, improve our workplaces.

So the whole point of the employee energy advice service is that we’re going out into companies and holding workshops with a number of employees from any level and any backgrounds where we’re talking about how to improve the energy efficiency within the workplace, which of course has an immediate benefit for the employer because employees are going to be more focused on things like sustainability, their energy usage, their energy behaviours, things like that.

But then also, the second part of the workshop is then talking about home energy advice, so giving energy advice and tips to individuals. We give them information packs on how to save money on their energy, but we can also guide them through things like government grants and initiatives that are available.

Why is now such an important time for employers to engage their employees in energy efficiency?

With the journey to net zero, it’s important for any business and employer at the moment to start looking at their energy usage and their energy behaviours and how they can cut their carbon emissions. So whether it’s the CSR responsibilities or ESG responsibilities for any employer, to be able to actually offer advice to the employees on how to use energy at work and how to save energy at work and how to cut carbon emissions.

By providing that awareness, we’re actually going to be helping that employer on their journey towards net zero because it does all start with the people that are using the energy within the business. Whether you’re in a retail, factory, warehouse or office environment, we all use energy. In every business environment throughout the country.

So I think as sustainability managers or sustainability champions within your business, that’s a fantastic move to be able to nominate people and recruit people for that role. However, it actually really begins with your employees and how much energy they’re using.

How will these workshops assist employees with the cost of living?

Why should businesses take part in energy awareness?

We’re in 2024 and I think it’s a responsibility now for most employers to take responsibility over their energy consumption. So there’s many things that businesses could do to help reduce carbon emissions. (They can install solar panels). With a bit of a sustainability plan, all of those things are fantastic, really valuable ways of actually reducing their impact on the environment.

But it is user behaviour that is going to ultimately be the deciding factor as to how much energy gets used. And I think there’s a bigger picture behind all of this. The more awareness that’s out there, the more that people are actually aware of their contribution to carbon emissions and how, the impact that their job has on carbon emissions.

It could be really, really minute changes in user behaviour, which some of our pilot workshops demonstrated. When you’re an employee and you go to the kitchen, think about how you’re using the appliances and the facilities, are you leaving lights on? About waste usage; what are you doing when you’re throwing things away in the bin?

Have you got a policy for recycling? It could be looking at things like electric vehicles and charging. It could be looking at small impacts that their individual roles have on that employee, employer. So, There’s actually quite a big picture that we can create, as granular a plan as an employer needs depending on that work environment and what it looks like.

But really the first start is spreading that awareness, employers being able to demonstrate that they’re actively and proactively taking a role in their journey towards achieving net zero.

Do employees have to live under specific housing conditions to take part?

As far as the employees go, when we’re looking at their homes and how energy efficient they are, it doesn’t really matter on the tenure.

So as far as we’re concerned, the energy advice that we’re giving out to employees can be as granular or simple as we like, as far as basic energy tips all the way through to, “actually my property has an EPC rating of E, and I want to get it up to a C. How can I do that?”

Our qualified retrofit assessors deliver the workshop. So anybody that receives that advice is getting qualified, experienced, knowledgeable advice from our experienced team. It doesn’t really matter what property or what tenure it is that you live in because everybody has got some benefit from actually attending the workshops.

If people do live, for example, in social housing, we’re more than happy to speak to social landlords or housing associations on their behalf just to see if there is any plan for retrofit measures to be installed or what that might look like. Alternatively, if they’re private homeowners, perhaps they might be eligible for an ECO4 grant or Great British Insulation Scheme funding.

We can certainly see what funding is out there and then tailor that to that person and the property.

How long do the workshops take and where do they take place?

So we can deliver the workshops either in person, ideally, which is what we tend to like to do, or online, in an online seminar. It really depends on how many employees they have and whether they work shifts or not.

Generally speaking, it’s a very flexible service that we’re offering. It is very bespoke, it’s tailor made. We can do it in sessions of 15 to 20 people at a time. We’re happy to be there for a few days or weeks if necessary. We can have a bit of a pop up scenario in the canteen, and then ad hoc workshops throughout the day where employees can drop in. So we are sympathetic that, of course, time is money and people are going to be there to do their jobs; we can really structure the workshops around that company and what their requirements are.

How much do the workshops cost?

So we tend to do it on a per person basis, at £30 per head. For that £30, the employees get to have energy advice in the workplace, which is very much focused on how to save money at work or within your workplace. Secondly, we will then do a bit of a one to one with that employee talking about their home, their needs, their energy usage, any funding that we can help them gain. We’re happy to do that either in the workplace or separately via a call or a Zoom call.

Thirdly, we give them a fantastic information pack and energy guide that they can take away, and share with their families, which is all about energy saving tips. It then talks all about the kind of FAQs that we’re getting, like “how do I save money? What funding is available? What energy measures are there that I might be able to install on my property?” So they have a really useful guide as well, something tangible they can take away with them.

What happens if employees want additional help? What happens afterwards?

We do have an aftercare service as part of the workshop, so anybody can call our helpline post workshop, where our energy experts will be on hand to be able to just talk them through any extra questions they might have or any support they might need, or it may be that they have family members that they think could also benefit from the service.

So although we say “workplace energy advice,” it can actually go as far and wide as it needs to. We’re here to help as many people as we possibly can to get energy measures installed.

Book a call to learn more

You can book a call for either 15 or 30 minutes to discuss your business needs.