Understanding Responsibilities
Who should be responsible for energy efficiency in the work place: employers or employees? Most businesses aren’t sure.
A study conducted by E.ON looked into workplace habits and found that just one in ten workers acknowledged that energy efficiency was part of their role, while many junior executives believed it was the role of the office manager, and many office managers said it was the responsibility of the owner or more senior managers. A classic case of everyone thinking someone else was taking care of something.
Owners and chief executives accepted the most responsibility overall, with 22% saying it was their role to ensure the office was energy-efficient. However, that didn’t mean that they set a good example: a quarter admitted that they rarely think about the issue, and a tenth said that they took no measures at all to be more energy-efficient.
So where should the responsibility lie? If you really want to make a change to your business’s energy bills, then you need action from both employers and employees. Staff need to change their habits, but as an employer, you need to provide leadership on the issue, and show that you take energy efficiency seriously by putting it on the business agenda. Read our guide to energy-efficiency and energy management for tips and information.
And never miss out the crucial element of managing the price you pay for your energy as well as the energy you use in the mission to manage energy costs and your environmental impact.