By now, you should have heard of green earth campaign. It is all over the media. Awareness in all shapes and forms impeded within our endless source of information. The call is unison; earth is reaching its burning point due to pollution. This is adamantly clear with natural event happening around the globe such as thinning of ozone layer, rising of sea level, El Nino, La Nina and many more.
One of the contributors towards this unwanted scenario is carbon footprint. In a simpler definition, carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission produced by individual, asset, building, community, organization, or nation as whole. If GHG is not properly mitigated, it will worsen the effect of global warming. Consequently, average earth temperature will rise to a point where it is no longer habitable.
Hence, it is high time to take a stand to prevent disaster on a global scale.
There are number of things we could do to participate in this cause. The easiest way to reduce carbon footprint is by improving our energy consumption. Given that it is fairly impossible to not use energy at all, we could ensure that each watt of electric is fully utilized.
Here are sixes ways on how to improve our energy consumption at the workplace.
Conjure: Put up memo or notice within the vicinity of every electrical appliances. This is to ensure that any appliances, for example air conditioner, will be switched off after being used. We tend to take this habit lightly since we assume that electrical power is limitless. Imagine that for every watt we wasted by keeping it switched on, we are burning coal or carbon fuel that is depleting. These resources are limited, and the earth will soon run out of it at some point.
Also, do enforce clear guidelines as to how and when to use it. Sometimes, we tend to use certain appliances even when we have no need for it. For instance, do we really need to switch on the light even when our workstation received natural lighting during the day? The mantra is pretty much straight forward. Use only when necessary.
Check : Perform periodic assessment on every electrical appliances, machines, or equipment. Ensure that it is in good condition and clean. In point of fact, cleanliness does affect energy consumption rate to a certain extent. Take a fan for example. Dirty fan blade accumulates significant amount of dust on it. This will then reduce its air flow, resulting in higher workload for the fan motor. This equates to higher rate of energy consumption.
Apart from assessing your assets, you could also assess on its usage. This is slightly different than switching off appliances after every usage. To assess its usage is when you find optimum usage for each appliance. Perhaps you could set the air conditioner temperature a bit higher given that your working area is not so crowded.
Cut : on top of earlier assessment on cleanliness and optimum usage, you could add one more step which is to eliminate unnecessary appliances. There are times when certain area at your workplace no longer serve its initial purpose, yet the appliances are still intact. It is completely understandable that you could opt to not turning it on. Still, we have tendencies to overlook. About time to dismantle any appliances that no longer useful.
Compound : Do you know that some of your appliances may not work as efficient as before? We often overlook the fact that appliances depreciate over time. It may still function but with higher energy consumption. This is due to some parts of said appliances no longer work as efficient as before. Thus, more energy is required to overcompensate its inefficiency. Thus, it is advisable to install new parts with better energy efficiency upon malfunctioned, discontinued or no longer perform well.
Concentrate : Give more attention on automation whenever possible. By looking into automation, you are reducing human error as well ensuring consistency in form of energy usage. Furthermore, automation system will help you manage your usage even better by having data on behaviour. This will serve as a guide later to implement better policy concerning energy management. Do allocate budget as to further improve existing automation system for long term benefit.
Change : Finally, you could opt to upgrade total or portions of your existing system with one with better energy efficiency. Take Chilled Water (CHW) system. You could opt to upgrade its water system by using higher efficiency chiller with better cooling tower and pump. Coupled with implementation of instrumentation and programmable logic control framework for better energy consumption, you could save on your electricity bills significantly with the upgrade.
In conclusion, it is possible for us to contribute in reducing carbon footprint. Not only that we help reducing greenhouse effect, but this will also result in monetary savings. In addition, better energy consumption habit will guarantee asset to be used to its full potential.
Better still, consult energy saving companies to find more on how to reap these benefits!
