The Armstrong staff ideas are in

We now have a whole raft of ideas based on comments left on this site by Armstrong staff over the last few weeks, and I have collated them (for ease of viewing) below.  There have been lots of left-field suggestions, but also a lot of common sense.  So common sense in fact I wonder why it has never occurred to us before!

In no particular order, the ideas suggested by the Armstrong team:

• Putting in individual room thermostats to allow occupied rooms to be heated
• Draft proofing the front doors of the office which have a 1cm gap
• Putting timers / revising the timers on the central heating to reduce consumption during off peak hours
• Printing on both sides of copier and inkjet paper as standard (single side on request)
• Sending / receiving efaxes rather than paper faxes
• Electronic invoicing to reduce paper consumption
• Open the windows rather than turning on the air conditioning
• Scheduling project consultants diaries based on distance to client (as well as skill set and availability) to reduce mileage
• Using win-terminals in the back office to reduce power consumption
• Implement web-cams for the account managers to communicate with existing customers
• Install power saving sockets (timed, or switch off all components when master device turned off)
• Unplug phone charges and other power draining devices when not in use
• Install energy efficient bulbs, and or motion sensing light switches
• Install a timer on the air con#
• Install a shower to encourage cycling or running to work rather than driving
• Offset carbon emissions through tree planting schemes
• Install a wind turbine / solar panel on the office roof
• Setup the PC’s to hibernate after hours using specialist software
• Put up signs reminding people to switch off lights, printers, LCD screens etc.

The next step for us is to prioritise the above based on potential impact and ease of implementation, and see if we can tackle some of the really obvious ones quickly!  I hope to report progress on some of these soon, and also to announce the prize for the best suggestion, to be decided at next week’s board meeting.