Saving water saves energy: a new contract for SE²

The energy used to heat hot water can account for around 23% of a home's carbon footprint, which means that saving water saves energy.  SE², in partnership with EnviroCentre, is conducting research into water and energy efficient retrofit programmes within the household sector and will be facilitating a stakeholder workshop in February to discuss the opportunities that exist for integrating these important agendas.

With ambitious government targets to reduce our national carbon emissions it's clear that reducing our hot water use has an important part to play and government plans to retrofit all existing homes with energy-efficiency measures by 2030 provide the perfect opportunity to equip existing homes with water saving measures.

This research project, on behalf of the Environment Agency and the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes, builds on previous work conducted with the Energy Saving Trust to establish the energy and carbon effects of water use.  (Published: 4/2/10)

Saving Energy in North Fulham

Between August and December 2009, SE² delivered the `West Kensington energy Savers' project for the North Fulham NDC. The project delivered exciting results, with 62% of people saying it had helped them save energy, and three people completing a two week training course to become a qualified bike mechanic.

Following on from our previous community engagement work in the area, the aim of the project was to help residents save money on their energy bills, support cycling and provide training opportunities for local residents. SE² gave tailored energy advice to over 100 residents, as well as manning energy advice stands at community events and producing an information booklet. We held three bike doctor sessions and two bike mechanic taster days, where residents could learn basic bike maintenance skills. As a result of this, three people completed further training to gain a City & Guilds VSQ in Cycle Maintenance and Repair.

One of the residents who completed the City & Guilds training said, "the course and tutors were great and I feel privileged to have had it funded by the NDC. I now have skills that I can use to benefit my life and others around me". (Published: 15/1/10)

Our Training Programme for February 2010

Places are still available on the training course we have planned in February: Introduction to Environmental Assessment - Thursday 25th February.  All courses are delivered by our training partners Rickaby Thompson Associates in London.  Full details are on our training pages  or call Yianni on 020 8912 0441 for more information. (Published: 9/12/09)

SE² completes climate change adaption research for DCSF

Changing weather patterns and the global nature of supply chains means that we will all have to adapt our lifestyles to cope with the impact of climate change.  SE² recently completed a scoping study for the Department for Schools, Families and Communities (DCSF) looking at how climate change may impact on the operation of children's services sector, and what adaptation may be required as a result.  The report considers issues including increased temperatures leading to overheating of school buildings, increased incidence of flooding, the impacts of water shortages, changes to global supply chains and the availability of power.  The research was presented to a cross-departmental panel, and the next stages for research are currently under discussion.  (Published: 9/12/09)

Gold!

One of SE²'s biggest achievements this year has been becoming of only six SMEs in London to achieve Gold Level in the Mayor of London's Green Procurement Code.  The Code is a support programme for organisations wishing to reduce their environmental impact through purchasing and reflects our ongoing commitment to making our business as sustainable as possible.  A thorough audit by a Code Assessor scored our procurement practices above the average for all categories, including involving and engaging staff in green procurement, working with suppliers and embedding green procurement in our policy and communications.  We will continue to work on `greening' our supply chain, including evaluating all our purchasing decisions against sustainability criteria and seeking out ways to reduce and improve on what we buy.  Green procurement has become central to our everyday activities, but it's not something we consider an extra effort: it is how we run our business.  SE² aims to be environmentally aware in everything that we do so that when we are working throughout the energy and environment section, we can be confident that we are practising what we preach, and that we can talk from experience.  (Published: 9/12/09)