Businesses get the benefits of going green, and pocket the savings!

Everything Office, East Anglia’s leading office supplies company has been selected as the winner of the Construction and Renovation category of The National Energy Efficiency Awards 2008 sponsored by EDF Energy. The prestigious Awards ceremony, held on 2nd December at the Globe Theatre in London, showcased the innovative energy efficiency work of 42 finalists across the Award’s 10 categories.

Outgrowing its original premises Everything Office, a leading provider of environmentally friendly office supplies, took up the opportunity to go “green”. The company moved into its new environmentally-friendly building – aptly named the Greenhouse – earlier this year. In updating their premises they managed to reduce their CO2 emissions by 15,000 kg per year, reducing their energy bills by 80% and water consumption by 50%.

Its new building incorporates a living, sedum roof which gives better insulation and allows rainwater harvesting for the toilets and gardens. It also has argon-filled double glazing with a solar coating to reduce solar gain and additional recycled insulation significantly increases the building’s thermal properties.

IT servers are renowned for generating significant heat, which in most buildings is lost energy. But in The Greenhouse, the heat generated is used to heat water for hand-washing, while the building’s low energy and LED lighting is controlled by both daylight and motion sensors.

Bob Taylor, Managing Director for Everything Office commented that “We are delighted to have won this award, and I would like to thank everyone at Everything Office for all their hard work in making The Greenhouse a success.”

In his keynote address at the ceremony Paul Ross, journalist, and media personality congratulated the finalists for being at the forefront of efforts to address climate change. He also praised them for demonstrating innovative and diverse ways to demonstrate the business and organisational benefits arising from greater energy efficiency.

The National Energy Efficiency Awards sponsored by EDF Energy and organised by UK CEED received 170 high quality entries illustrating a broad range of good energy efficiency practice by public, voluntary and private sector organisations.