Kill a watt and save the planet - and your money

It is 10 in the evening at Liverpool Street in the heart of London's financial district. The work day is over and office blocks are deserted but every window in row upon row of office buildings is ablaze with light.

A peep through a ground floor window reveals rows of flickering computers, left on by users.

It is the same in every business district across Britain, throughout Europe and indeed, the world - waste of electricity that is adding billions of tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases every year to Earth's atmosphere.

Each year Britain wastes £12 billion worth of energy, amounting to a third of total consumption, according to Action Energy, a government-backed initiative.

"Most people don't realise energy costs are controllable but they are," said Dr David Vincent, technology director at the Carbon Trust, a non-profit independent company which is part of the government's Climate Change Programme.

"By improving energy efficiency, you cut out energy waste, save money and help cut the carbon dioxide emissions which are a principal cause of climate change."

Under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, Britain has pledged to cut emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2010. A government white paper aims for a 60 per cent reduction by 2050.

The government now expects more than half the emission reductions due by 2010 to be achieved through energy efficiency.

"The cheapest, cleanest and safest way (of cutting emissions) is to use less electricity," it said in the white paper that set out energy goals for the next 50 years.

But activists say that over the past few years consumer incentives to save energy have been eroded by a more competitive electricity trading market which has brought lower prices. Prices have fallen 40 per cent since 1998.

"Electricity has become cheaper and cheaper," said Bryony Worthington, energy campaigner with the environmentalist group Friends of the Earth (FOE). "So power bills are not steep enough now to get offices and households to take notice."

But cutting energy use can be a relatively easy way of bolstering the bottom line. Action Energy says it has helped firms save £800 million a year since 1989.

Keith Huyton, environment manager at the HBOS bank said many firms just do not see energy as a cost cutting opportunity. With Action Energy's help, his firm slashed the power bills for its offices in Halifax and Leeds in northern England.

"In business every penny helps. We invested £1.4 million in energy saving measures but saved over two million between 1999 and 2001, so it was a good investment," Mr Huyton said.

"So there is a strong business case for energy savings." HBOS installed gadgets like automatic motion detector lights and employed low-cost methods such as coordinating staff movements to optimise building occupancy. It plans to extend the strategies across its offices in Britain.

Another company, Solutia UK, a chemicals producer, shaved £350,000 or more than 10 per cent from its annual energy bill by cutting consumption by 13 per cent in 2002. Despite using less energy, its output rose seven per cent.

"Our strategy was to secure energy savings at no or low cost," said Keith Agnew, Solutia's energy manager. "We cut our energy consumption significantly, without spending much."

He said instituting routine checks had cut air leaks and thus, power bills by more than £40,000. Reducing water pressure helped pumps cut electricity consumption by four-fifths.

The Carbon Trust says Britain's non-domestic sector has the potential to save more than a billion pounds worth of energy and about six million tonnes of carbon each year by the end of 2010.

"There are a lot of low and no-cost energy saving opportunities out there for the taking," Dr Vincent said.

Corporations are not the only culprits. Households use a third of Britain's power and cause 45 per cent of its carbon emissions.

The average home produces six tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the same as 34 buses. Population growth, rising incomes and the desire for bigger homes and more electrical appliances exacerbate the problem, says the Energy Savings Trust (EST).

But poor planning and housing regulations are much to blame. For instance, the amount of heat lost in British houses through poor insulation can heat five million homes a year, the EST says.