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Improving Your Business Efficiency
The two major areas for efficiency improvements are:
- What goes into a business in terms of energy, raw materials and other resources
- What leaves the business in terms of waste products, which may be in gaseous, liquid or solid form
Input or output, they all represent financial cost and when businesses use legitimate means to reduce them, they invariably improve efficiency and save money.
Energy Usage
Almost all businesses use energy in the form of electricity, gas, oil, etc., but in whatever form it is used, most energy used in the UK today comes from fossil fuels that are non-renewable. In other words, "once they are gone, they are gone"
Saving energy can save your business money. This in itself should be an incentive for your business to be more energy efficient. However to make it even more desirable, the Government has raised a surcharge on the energy consumed by businesses called the Climate Change Levy. All businesses pay according to the forms of energy they use. As at May 2007 the rates were:
- Electricity - 0.441p/kWh
- Gas - 0.154p/kWh
- Coal - 1.201p/kilogram
- Liquid Petroleum Gas - 0.985p/kilogram
Whilst there is currently no legislation that requires businesses to be more energy efficient, the government has a range of initiatives in place as incentives to businesses, the main one being the Carbon Trust.
The Trust provides a range of publications and a telephone helpline (0800 085 2005) for businesses that want to improve their energy efficiency.
We offer a range of environmental training courses to support our services. In particular, see the overview for:
Waste Reduction
By definition, waste almost invariably means unnecessary cost. It can take a variety of forms such as:
- Waste raw materials that incur cost to dispose of them
- Waste that is generated as by-products of business processes
- Wasted energy that goes into the surrounding environment and still has to be paid for
Businesses can benefit in a variety of ways from investing in waste minimisation initiatives with typical savings in the region of 4% to 5% of turnover, realised through:
- Direct cost savings
- Increased productivity
- Improved product quality
- Reduced environmental liabilities
We offer a range of environmental training courses to support our services. In particular, see the overview for:
Energy Usage and Waste Reduction often need little capital investment and can result in savings year after year.
Ultimately, the most organised way of approaching business efficiency is to implement a full Environment Management System in accordance with ISO14001. See
See Reference pages for information on Legislation / Glossary / Weblinks