Commercial Blog

The return of holidays and foreign travel is on the horizon.

Once the pandemic is over, many people are looking to take more sustainable trips. And hoteliers are rising to the challenge. Between 2015 and 2018, the average carbon emissions per square metre of hotels decreased 10% globally, with a 23.4% reduction in the UK.

We believe one of the most effective ways to cut carbon (and costs) is by investing in solar panels for hotels. They can help to win over more environmentally-conscious visitors and reduce monthly energy bills. In fact, Whitbread, the UK’s largest hospitality company, has rolled out solar PV across 20% of its Premier Inn hotels so far (much of it installed by Spirit!).

In a recent NUS survey, 90% of students said they were concerned about climate change (about 10 percentage points higher than the population as a whole). Students, and young people in general, are naturally more anxious about the climate crisis - the impacts of a destabilising environment will only become more acute over their lifetimes.

Demand for warehouse space in the UK is booming this year, as more of us turn to online shopping while the virus keeps us away from the high streets. The proportion of retail done online (which was already on the rise) has skyrocketed:

We’re very excited to share our recent solar installation at West Reservoir Centre, an outdoor swimming facility in Hackney. It is the first installation in a new solar power scheme launched by Hackney Light and Power, as part of its mission to make the borough net zero carbon by 2040.

For most people, a trip to the shops is about picking up the weekly groceries, with rarely a concern for the huge amount of power needed to keep the building running and the food fresh.

As electricity bills rise, shop owners are keen to cut costs where they can. Here’s why we’d recommend solar panels for supermarkets to save money on energy and become more sustainable.

As businesses start to get up and running again, there’s a renewed focus on the UK’s commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. By investing in the right technology, companies can support this by lowering their carbon emissions, alongside saving on their energy bills.

Low Carbon Workspaces wants to aid businesses in this transition and is offering grants of up to £5,000 to invest in carbon-saving upgrades. This could be a grant for solar panels, battery storage, insulation, EVs or lighting.

Grants are available for SMEs based in Berkshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire, ranging from £1,000 - £5,000 to cover up to a third of the cost of energy improvements. The scheme is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

Offices, shops, schools and other premises across the country have been shuttered or only partially open since the lockdown. In an undoubtedly difficult time, many organisations are looking to save money. This could be the perfect opportunity to look at improvements to your company’s energy use, investing in efficient technology to reduce your energy costs in the long term.

Here are a few things we can help with to make your energy usage greener and more cost-effective.

UK farms produce about 10% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions (due to cows, fertilisers, heavy machinery... and the fact that 71% of the UK is farmland) and pressure is mounting to address this, if we’re to meet our climate change mitigation ambitions.

When we browse websites or store information in the cloud, we’re not just outsourcing computing power, we’re outsourcing the emissions needed to run the internet. Data centres pick up the slack. They consume more than 2% of electricity worldwide and collectively have the same emissions as the airline industry. With global data traffic doubling every four years, this is likely to increase - adding even more to the strain on the climate.

While climate science is alarming (suggesting just 10 years left to limit warming below the dangerous 1.5 degree level), it presents an opportunity for businesses to step up where governments have made little progress. Sustainability can give your company an edge and set you apart as a leader in your industry.

You may see it as a moral urge to reduce your business carbon footprint. Or perhaps it’s the long term financial savings that appeal. Either way, it makes sense to be a step ahead of future regulations which are likely to penalise polluters.

According to a Nielsen survey, 81% of customers think it is ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important that companies act to improve the environment - so there’s a great commercial imperative to engage in climate action too.

But where do you start? We’ve broken down the question of how to reduce your company’s carbon footprint into five key topics to help you create an actionable plan.