Carbon Trust offers free energy advice for licensees

The Carbon Trust found that 35% of businesses currently don’t have a plan in place to manage energy price rises, but acknowledge that they should make one, especially as more pubs serve up more food.

Its new Carbon Trust Implementation service not only provides free advice but also a list of accredited suppliers to carry out the work.

The launch comes as the Forum of Private Business (FPB) also revealed that 94% of members have seen energy bills increase over the past year.

“A lot of pubs think there is a single bullet to save costs — it is easy to reduce staff at the end of the day but takes time to save on energy in the eyes of many licensees,” said Carbon Trust’s Dominic Burbridge.

“That is where we come in — our specialists and suppliers have the knowledge which can help remove that headache.”

One key area is food operations, which can now account for 40% of the total energy bill. “Chefs need to be educated about start-up times and how long it takes for something to warm up sufficiently. You can achieve up to 40% energy cuts in the kitchen just by getting chefs on board.”

Burbridge said a number of low-cost measures such as installing a smart meter, switching to energy-saving lightbulbs, draught-proofing, and improving lighting control and insulation could deliver savings of 10-20% a year for just £2,000.

“The key thing is that energy is a controllable cost. Energy is moving up the agenda as something which can help you be more competitive, and still generate customer service.”

Peach Pubs was the first to take advantage of the new scheme as it attempts to cut costs by 20%. Director Jo Eames hailed the service as “an innovative way of offering advice at no cost to a business.”
For more information visit www.carbontrust.co.uk/implementation