Energy and Carbon Management Convincer

Energy:

• The NHS currently spends nearly £500 million annually on its energy bill.
• Understanding where energy is being used and wasted and implementing a formal energy policy accordingly can make savings of up to 20%, for very little investment.
• Overall energy consumption can have significant and long term financial benefits. The 10 pilot participants of the Carbon Trust’s NHS Carbon Management Programme identified measures to save approximately £8 million a year in energy costs.
• if healthcare trusts meet their target to cut primary energy consumption by 15 per cent between 2000 and 2010, the NHS will save £50 million per year on its current energy bills – equivalent to one small community hospital or 7,000 heart bypass operations
• Offices waste £6,000 each year by leaving equipment on over weekends and bank holidays.
• Heating accounts for around 60 per cent of most office’s energy use. Just by reducing the temperature by 1 degree can decrease an energy bill by 10 per cent.

Carbon management:

• if the 166 acute hospital trusts in England eliminated the estimated 90 kilotonnes of CO2 emitted each year when idle computers and screens are left on unnecessarily, the carbon emissions saved would be equivalent to those generated by flying over 26,000 people from London to New York and back
• Upgrading existing buildings with energy-saving devices could have a significant impact on energy consumption and subsequently on carbon emissions. Improvements worth undertaking include changes to the building fabric (such as insulation) and additions that increase operational efficiency (such as motion-sensor lighting and building management systems). Upgrades like these have the potential to reduce emissions from NHS buildings by 8 to 10%, resulting in significant cost savings