H&C News meets with suppliers regularly to keep up to date with the latest product and service innovations, aiming to get the inside track on what companies offer to the market and how it is delivered.
This week, we met with Mark Sait founder and CEO of SaveMoneyCutCarbon at their offices in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk to gain a better understanding of the business.
SaveMoneyCutCarbon is a full-service efficiency partner for businesses and consumers who want to save energy and water, cut utility bills and reduce carbon emissions.
- What did you originally set out to achieve when setting up SaveMoneyCutCarbon?
We wanted to remove the barriers associated with becoming more energy efficient. We’re achieving this through our one-stop solution to ensure businesses save money and reduce carbon. That includes everything from energy auditing, project management and financial modelling, to technology procurement, installation and marketing to communicate what has been achieved.
- What are the three steps that most businesses should initially take to save money and cut carbon?
- Our view is every company should conduct regular comprehensive energy and water management audits. Utility costs continue to rise, and it’s no longer an option to just go along with it. Are you spending most money on power, heating or for water? Understand your data and make an action plan.
- British business should be looking across the board at simple energy and water measures that could save £0000s – lighting, heating controls, water-saving solutions.
- Involve staff, motivate them to help reduce costs and tie-in the savings with potential or experiences at home to make it personal and vivid.
- Is there a long way to go for the whole hospitality sector to gain most benefit commercially and environmentally from energy and water efficiency strategies
Most hotels tell us they have already got their house in order when it comes to resource efficiency, but we usually find there is still more that can be done. Heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and hot water account for 80 per cent of the money commercial businesses spend on energy, and in our experience most can make significant savings in all these areas.
Making a sound business case to become more energy efficient is critical. There are three factors causing business leaders in this 24/7 industry to question the status quo: rising energy prices, a requirement to cut CO2 emissions and a desire to improve value as a result of a healthier bottom line. For sustainable energy-saving strategies, monitoring guest satisfaction is essential, as is managing the look and feel of the environment. It can be done – and there are some quick fixes – but a long-term commitment from management is a key factor.
- What are your top tips to help businesses be more energy efficient and save money?
- Gather energy and water data, essential for making the right savings decisions as well as for effective measurement, forecasting and monitoring once efficiency changes are made.
- Choose LED lighting to cut electricity use by up to 85 per cent with return on investment in as little as 12 months, then providing years of future savings.
- Save energy and water with eco shower heads, eco taps and tap aerators – cutting water consumption by more than 50% and reducing the energy used for heating and pumping.
- Fit smart heating and lighting controls to reduce energy consumption by 40-60%.
- Maximise efficiency of pumps and fans with Variable Speed Drives, cutting energy use by up to 50%.
- What have innovative hotels / hotel groups done in this area and what can others learn?
The Hotel Collection expects to save £360,000 a year after investing £300,000 in energy and water efficiency projects across its 21 UK hotels.
The Hotel Collection worked with SaveMoneyCutCarbon to identify projects which would cover costs within two years: it’s made savings by installing LED lighting, eco-smart showers and tap aerators across its estate, and an intelligent heating and cooling management system at The Hinckley Island Hotel, to be rolled out now across the company estate.
The Hotel Collection’s savings of £360,000 a year equate to £128 for each of its 2,800 rooms. If the UK hotel industry achieved only half that across its 600,000 rooms, it could cut bills by more than £38 million every year, while saving significant amounts of carbon to help meet UK targets.
Other case studies from the hospitality sector can be found here
H & C News comment
There is no doubt that the advice given by Mark is sound business, we suspect it’s all about making time to save money and carbon, and we would encourage you to.
For more information on SaveMoneyCutCarbon please contact our friendly team.
Park Farm Business Centre
Fornham St Genevieve
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP28 6TS
0845 123 5464
E-mail us trade@savemoneycutcarbon.com
Visit our Website www.savemoneycutcarbon.com
Follow us on Twitter @SaveCutCarbon
Find us on Facebook here