It’s been a busy few months since my last post and we have several projects underway at the Trust to reduce our carbon emissions and improve sustainability.

The cost of energy has been in the news a lot over the last few months as gas and electricity bills continue to rise (with some major oil companies making staggering profits), but the energy we use has an environmental cost as well as a financial one. Gas and oil have an obvious and direct connection to climate change as well as to disasters like oil spills. Electricity generation also has an impact and because fossil-fuel power plants still generate a significant proportion of the electricity in the grid, the average carbon cost is usually between 100-200g CO₂ per kWh (take a closer look), though this is improving as more renewable power sources come online. This means that saving energy will benefit both the bank balance and the environment - and there's no better time to reduce energy waste than now!

We recently had an energy efficiency audit conducted at our HQ at Lower Smite Farm. The audit was carried out by the Business Energy Efficiency Programme, which is administered by Worcestershire County Council and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. It helped us to identify several ways that we could improve energy efficiency: reducing cold draughts around doors, insulating any exposed heating pipes and giving radiators space so that they can work more effectively. We will also be reducing our electricity demand from the grid by switching to energy-efficient lights (e.g. LEDs) where this hasn’t already been done and by potentially installing solar PV panels to produce our own electricity onsite.

We're also going to reduce energy loss caused by vampires. Well, actually ‘vampire drain’, which is the term used for energy wasted by electrical equipment when not in use. Even on standby, electrical equipment and gadgets like TVs, laptops, and tools – basically anything which is plugged into a live socket – still use some electricity. Although the amount of vampire drain per item might be small, it is constant and it adds up: up to 23% of household electricity costs are estimated to be down to vampire drain, costing £2.2 billion each year across the UK. As well as the significant financial cost, this means that a lot of carbon-intensive energy is being wasted but could be easily saved by getting into the habit of flipping a switch.

Like most environmental issues, there is no single easy solution to reducing the impacts of our energy needs. Instead there needs to be a variety of changes, some big and some small. The demand for energy can be reduced through behavioural changes and smarter energy use, improving insulation and switching to energy-efficient technologies like LEDs and heat pumps. Energy supply needs to change too and decarbonising heat and electricity generation will be crucial to reducing carbon emissions and other environmental impacts.

As with my first blog, I’m going to end with a few suggestions and tips to improve sustainability and reduce the impacts of climate change. As this blog has been mainly about energy efficiency, I’m going to follow that theme.

• When it comes to those pesky vampires, try to make it as easy as possible to turn sockets off when you aren’t using the device: for example, putting several gadgets on an extension lead so they can all be turned off in one go and using extension leads with individual switches so that individual devices can easily be turned off rather than unplugged (make sure to never overload sockets as this can be a fire risk).
• If you’re charging a device with batteries, try to switch the socket off or unplug it as soon as the device is charged.
• Some of the biggest offenders for vampire drain include TVs and disc players, games consoles, stereos and speakers, computers and monitors, printers, phone chargers, and kitchen appliances.
• Have a read for hints and tips for a vampire hunt. 
• Visit the Simple Energy Advice website for tips on how to save heat energy.
• Severn Trent Water offer advice and some freebies to help reduce water and heat loss.
• Check out the Energy Saving Trust for great tips on reducing household carbon emissions in general.