Where does the time go?

After returning from a few weeks away I checked when I'd last updated the blog and noticed it was almost a month ago already! It doesn't feel like it should have been that long but I think the adage that the older you get the quicker time goes is very true. I can't believe it's almost September already and my sister was reminding me to start my shopping for Christmas soon. (!)

In previous blogs I've mentioned the intention of Cobweb to become a 'greener, more socially aware' company and this has progressed since then. The more I've found myself looking in to what we can do the more I've found myself doing more at home too, not just to cut down on our carbon footprint but also to save money! For example one thing that I'd discovered was that just leaving a microwave on standby with the time on it was costing me £50 a year. £50 wasted just to have the time displayed! That doesn't happen any more. All plugs that are left in are switched off and not on standby, candles have been bought for the lower lighting needs rather than having things on a dimmer switch. Also, a single PC left on overnight and at weekends racks up an annual electricity bill of £53! (We have 60 people using PC's at Cobweb so that would be over £3000 a year for these machines to be left on at these times unused, money down the drain.)

What I'm doing is comparing what it cost us over the last quarter against what it will cost against the next quarter. Even if you feel that the whole 'environmental issue' is a lot of hot air then surely money disappearing out of your pocket will make people stand up and take notice. If you work it out over the year you could with a little bit of thought and effort save many hundreds if not thousands of pounds that you would have spent on what was wasted water and electricity. Is it really so hard?

Now, thats what I'm trying at home. Put that in to a business context where the waste is an infinately larger scale and you start to see the benefits of having something like an environmental standard in place. We may not be able to save the planet doing 'our little bit' but we can save money trying.

An interesting article on power consumption as an IT user can be found here

Mark

Comments

[James H]

Hey Mark, welcome back - Facebook's been very dull without you :)

Another great thought provoking post and I applaud Cobweb's efforts here.

I'm just wondering whether you can also help Mr Frisby out with his dilemma below - http://www.cob-blog.com/cobweb/2007/08/which-device-is.html - and perhaps create a Cobweb 'green policy' on unecessary mobile phone renewal and multiple device usage :)

'Do mobile phones cost the Earth?' ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6174422.stm

Also, an interesting article here debating whether the flexibility provided by mobile telecoms increases the impact on the environment or not. Clearly a complex argument but one that sits at the heart of how much we can do to consume the planet's resources more sustainably without having a detrimental effect on economic progress...
http://www.flexibility.co.uk/issues/transport/time-mobility.htm

[Mark]

Thanks for that James, obviously it was difficult not getting my 'fix' on Facebook! Lots of lovely people to talk to and keep in touch with, yourself included. :)

I read the article on time mobility and found it quite interesting. One of the things that struck me is that it states 'increases in speed liberate time for other activities' but doesn't actually say what these activities may be, more work or of a social nature. In my experience the more time I save it's for more work based (either at home or in the office) rather than relaxation time. It seems a bit strange that we save time and end up doing more work! Ironic maybe that alot of things are sold on the promise of saving us work!

As for the mobile phone and device renewal I completely see your point and I'm sure we'll expand on the fairly strict mobile phone policy that we have currently where we can't change our phones for at least a year and the mobile devices are all recycled around the business for support purposes. None of them are wasted any longer!

What sorts of things are happening within your company to reduce that carbon footprint and save money at the same time then? Would you like to share? :)

Mark

[James H]

Mark – looking around right here, right now my immediate impression is ‘probably not enough’. I think like many technology companies we feel duty bound to be at the cutting edge of hardware and software with the latest laptops and mobile devices. The knock on effects in terms of energy consumption and e-waste must be significant but I’m sure not fully understood.

Personally, I have had the same manky old mobile phone for 4 years (it’s now held together with sticky tape and surpasses anything illustrated in the phone ads as an ‘embarrassing phone’). I also always charge it in the car rather than from the grid.

[Nik]

£50 a year for a standby microwave? I suggest you do the maths:

At 15p per kWh £50 equates to about 1kWh per day, so your standby microwave would need to consume about 40W. I've actually measured mine with a power meter and it barely draws 2W. Still wasteful, but nowhere near as bad.

As for the use of candles, I'd love to see the fire risk assessment on that one...

I'm all in favour of reducing power usage, but an awful lot of the green propaganda in the press is accepted without the slightest bit of skeptical analysis.

Nik

[Mark]

Thanks for the comments Nik and I have to admit I took the £50 from a website that had said that it had done the maths but I think the point is that it's something that is wasteful regardless of how much it costs. If you said it only wastes £5 a year instead of £50 does that make it right?

In my case, 4 candles (large base) on a metal grate, in an open fireplace with tiled flooring, I feel pretty safe in the risk assessment on this one! :)

One of the things I've been trying to get across internally is that it's not just about getting caught up in any environmental propaganda or the 'in thing' but it's about cutting down on waste and saving money for ourselves as well as potentially damaging the environment. We have a culture where we waste so much, not just the natural resources around us but many other things. Maybe if we change some things in our behaviours to reduce waste then we can improve things as a whole.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Kind regards,
Mark