Technologies Helping Reduce The Environment Impact Of Your Business Premises
By André Fonseca, CEO of Zypho
Around the world environmental concerns are increasing and are probably at an all time high. Not surprisingly businesses want to ensure that they do what they can to reduce their environmental impact including that of their premises.
Businesses can lobby through professional bodies, industry groups etc. for greater action at a national level, but what else can be done to confront the climate crisis by businesses themselves?
Here are a few promising solutions to help reduce the environmental impact of your business premises:
Energy Use
When people think of environmental impact, they often think of energy use. There has been a big push towards finding renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar, and I would encourage switching to a renewable energy supplier.
Having a business policy of swapping out light bulbs for energy-efficient LED bulbs, for example, is useful. The cost of solar panels has fallen, and efficiency improved. If your business premises do not have solar panels yet you might want to look into your options.
Here is an interesting question: what if every window in your commercial building could generate energy?
Solar Glass
With solar glass, it will be possible to turn windows into solar panels. While still transparent, they trap the sun’s energy as it passes through, generating free, renewable.
While the transparent nature of solar windows reduces the efficiency of solar windows, teams are working to improve the efficiency to 15%. With billions of square meters of glass windows in the UK alone, even 15% could generate all the energy the nation needs!
Smart Switches
As well as generating more renewable energy, there are also new ways to reduce a business’s energy consumption overall. One area where we are particularly wasteful is in lighting, as lights are often left on unnecessarily.
Smart switches help combat unnecessary energy usage from lighting, switching them off when unneeded. They use a combination of automation tools, such as motion sensing and programmable times, to automatically turn lights off when they’re not being used.
Heat Loss
While we tend to think of electricity use when we think of environmentalism, heat loss is another huge contributing factor. Heat is still energy and heat loss both wastes energy and warms the environment.
Of course, using modern insulating materials and double-glazed windows are essential. However, there are also some new ways of recapturing heat energy, reducing environmental impact.
Shower Heat
Many businesses have shower facilities for people who, for example, cycle or run to work. With smart meters, you’ll be very aware that electric showers take a large amount of energy to quickly heat the water
Fortunately, Zypho has been working on a clever device that recaptures the heat from your shower water. Zypho devices can be retro-fitted into existing showers both in the home and commercial buildings. They exchange heat between the water disappearing down the drain and the water heating up to the heating unit, reducing energy use by up to 67%. That means for every three showers, two are free!
Water Efficiency
Water efficiency should be considered just as important as energy and heat. If your business happens to have high water usage you’ll want to look at your manufacturing processes to see where this can be reduced.
To stick with the shower example, and to demonstrate what is possible, there are a number of companies developing solutions that reduce the amount of water used in a shower by up to 65%.
One is Nebia, creators of a new showerhead that uses up to 65% less water than a traditional shower. It does this by atomising the water for a more efficient shower without sacrificing on the quality of the shower. Another low-cost option is the Niagara low-flow showerhead that simply reduced the amount of water sprayed out by the shower while ensuring a consistent pressure.
Efficient Laundry
For businesses wanting an eco-friendly culture one fun option is to do some business laundry in the office – achievable with the Laundry Pod. Functioning much like a standard washing machine, complete with wastewater disposal, the Laundry Pod is a manual washing device that doubles as an exercise machine. So, not only will you save the vast amounts of water used by a traditional washing machine, you’ll use zero electricity and you and your team can get some exercise as well!
More action is needed from national govenments to support the environment. However, as businesses we can still make a huge impact by being more careful with our energy, heat and water use and doing everything we can to reduce them. For example, your business could cut your non-renewable energy usage to zero and reduce the amount of water used. The types of technologies highlighted can help businesses significantly reduce their environmental impact and keep costs down.
Citations:
https://www.gelighting.com/article/fall-love-your-light-again
http://www.niagaraconservation.com/
https://www.home-water-works.org/indoor-use/clothes-washer
https://www.reviewed.com/laundry/features/the-laundry-pod-is-both-a-washing-machine-and-arm-workout
