Mindzle

Posts Tagged ‘carbon emissions’

Air conditioners, although they’re great in tropical climates, are not known for being the most environmentally friendly of products. They’re big energy consumers and their level of carbon emissions is relatively high.

However more recently, people have attempted to come up with ideas to make air conditioners more eco-friendly. A new air conditioning system has recently been introduced however that is low energy, reduces CO2 and is made of natural materials.

The system saves approx. 800kg of CO2 p/a and is doesn’t contain any refrigerants that have a negative impact on the ozone layer. The system is made from natural, full compostable materials, meaning you can recycle the unit at the end of its life. This is a pertinent example of how the air conditioning industry can adapt their systems to reduce the impact they have on the environment.

The system also has numerous financial benefits, costing only 10p per day to power and allowing you to save the cost of an engineer by easily replacing the filters yourself. The systems also hold heat during the day, that has been recovered from the sun. The units then store this power overnight, meaning they take very little additional energy to power the following morning. This not only reduced the running costs of the unit but reduces the impact it has on the environment.

Many major companies are attempting to follow the example set by this new breed of air conditioners, with both Daikin air conditioning and Toshiba air conditioning now putting more time and money into producing units that are friendlier to the environment.

If you can spend a bit of time researching and looking around online you’ll no doubt be able to find air conditioning units that are cheaper to run and are far more eco friendly. So if you’re trying to stay cool at the home or office, an air conditioning unit might be more affordable than you think.

The 'Go Green' Campaign by IBM

You can’t move these days without hearing about how you can cut your CO2 emissions in your home, with ad campaigns, government policies and constant news coverage. An army of newly-enlisted eco-warriors are going about switching to energy saving bulbs, insulating their lofts and stopping putting their TVs on standby.  That’s all well and good, but carbon emissions from individuals is just a tiny piece of the pie.  The fact is that the majority of the world’s carbon footprint comes from businesses, offices and workplaces.It’s like an economy of scale – if you change a small thing within a big company you can see tremendous results.

Yes, I hear you say. I don’t have any control over that. That’s the job of my boss, and my boss’s boss – nothing to do with me. But that’s just not the case. If you have a job, you can affect your company’s carbon emissions.  And it can make a much bigger difference than the things you do at home.

Here are some pointers, small and large, on achieving a greener workplace:

1. Recycle office waste. Offices throw out a huge volume of paper and other recyclable waste every week – much more than any family could manage. Why not try bringing in recycle containers in accessible locations. There are local government schemes that can help you get these in place.
2. Drive less to work. Emissions from car exhausts are so harmful, and they can be cut by starting a fairly simple car pooling system. Or just cut out the car altogether – consider cycling or walking to work.
3. Switch to energy saving lightbulbs. Changing a couple of bulbs at home saves only a tiny bit of energy. But multiply that by all the bulbs lighting up your office and you can see how powerful a change this could make.
4. Eco-Friendly Computers. The energy usage of IT systems is huge for the majority of companies and organisations. Just a simple thing like making sure you switch off your monitor after work can be hugely effective. Why leave it there, though – for real results, get on to your IT manager about reviewing the company’s “green baseline”. Get them to perform some proper asset tracking on all office IT equipment, using professional asset management software, a business can dramatically reduce its carbon footprint and help meet increasingly stringent government environmental requirements.
5. Campaigning. Move from baby steps to giant leaps. Get like-minded colleagues together to run green campaigns and the real revolution begins.We little guys can really make a difference by putting pressure on the managers to take their environmental duties seriously. A lot of the time going green also saves the company some green, as the IBM ad shows brilliantly.Many companies are involved in using corporate vehicles in some way, from company cars to global freighting of goods, and this is a huge source of carbon emissions. Pushing them to properly review their transport and logistics management and make the smallest of improvements can save them big money and dramatically reduce their carbon footprint in the process.

These ideas are just the beginning. This article was primarly aimed at getting your juices flowing about this issue. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!