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There are many, many ways you might consider saving on your energy bills, not least of which is calling Utility Helpline to source the right business energy bill for your company.  However, the most simple, practical, effective and logistical way of saving on your actual energy business usage, is to get the staff on board, and doing their bit to help. In previous articles we have suggested very simple steps employees might take, such as turning off the PCs and printers when business is done, and similarly turning off lights when closing down the office or business premises.  Even such basic steps as these could save you hundreds of pounds a year.  Did you know, for instance, that turning off a photocopier each night saves the same energy it takes to make 1500 photocopies And yet many employees don’t follow these thoughts through, and many employers equally fail to press home the point.  There are may reasons for this - employees aren’t running up their own electricity bills, for instance - but more broadly, they are perhaps simply not tuned in to such practices. So, if you want to encourage the staff to join in making these energy saving measures, and thereby saving the company both energy and money, here are 10 thoughts as how you might motivate them: 1) Set An Example The staff will follow your lead, so the first thing you should do yourself is make sure you are whiter than white (or greener than green!) when it comes to turning off lights and machinery. 2) Team work You may be the right boss in the world but with every will in the world, sometimes staff simply don’t want another lecture on good practice in the workplace.  So try to take a step back and instead... encourage the staff themselves to implement changes. 3) Environmental Teams You might be able, for instance, to form environmental, or “green” teams to implement the changes and spread the word around the workplace, encouraging broader changes in a more “viral” manner. 4) R&D Environmental Teams could also be tasked with the job not only of implementing energy saving measures, but also researching other possible ways energy could be saved. 5) Have fun We want to save money... crumbs, we want to save the planet... but it’s hard to get the message over if it’s boring.  So make these new measures fun.  There could be a competition for the right energy saving idea, for instance, or the most energy saved.

6) Let’s do lunch Equally, you might explain these new measures over a staff lunch, or team-bonding event, certainly within a more conducive, collegiate environment than the usual office staff meeting.  7) Help staff These new procedures may be different to how employees operate at home, so help them out with a few information signs in key places, to remind them when equipment and lights should be turned off. 8) Education Many people still don’t realise the impact these measures will have, so kept the workplace informed as to the bigger picture, and why these measures are so important.  9) Incentives If all else fails... bribe them!  The government is looking at plans to allow electric cars to park for free, and to use the hard shoulder.  If employees are interested in making that move, you might similarly incentivise them. 10) Rewards! Equally, you may be able to reward the employee who has implemented the right measures, or saved the business the most money on their energy bills.  This could be lunch for two, a bottle of wine, or whatever suits. So, all pull together and great savings can be made.  As Confucius - or some similarly clever Chinese chap - once said: “many hands make light work… but you only need one to turn it off”.