Anne Veck and Keith Mellen at Anne Veck Sustainability are getting the New Year in hairdressing off to a warm start with some helpful advice on helping to reduce those nasty carbon emissions AND saving some money on energy.
17-23 January 2025 is Energy Saving Week! With that in mind, Anne Veck and Keith Mellen are hoping to make the challenge easier for salons up and down the UK. “Energy costs now a very significant business cost,” says Anne Veck. “It therefore makes huge sense to take a little time to think about how best to reduce both electricity and gas consumption as well as doing the right thing for people and the planet.”
5 Top Money Saving Environmentally Friendly Tips from Anne and Keith
- Reduce the energy you use. Install a smart meter (they are free). Switch things off. Use timing controls and apps to control when things are on and off throughout your salon or space. Motion sensitive lighting in appropriate rooms (e.g. staff room, colour prep area). LED lights of course. And the real biggie, use less hot water and turn the heat down! Use the timer on your heater.
- Insulate your space. Stop that toasty heat escaping through the windows, doors, walls and roof! Draught -proof your doors and windows. Close external doors and windows when it’s cold outside (d’oh!) . Insulate your water pipes too with foam tubes. Stops them freezing and bursting in the winter if you take this energy saving lark too far !
- Re-engineer your machinery! Air conditioning is very wasteful of energy. If you must have it, check the thermostat is set to the optimal temperature. Tumble driers are huge energy hogs. Air dry towels please! Buy a high-efficiency washing machine and dishwasher to save energy and money as well as water.
- If you haven’t already, switch (pun intended) to a genuine renewable energy supplier. Most energy companies offer a green tariff but, unfortunately, there is a difficult to understand and frankly, rather dodgy, licensing process involved which makes it difficult to tell whether they are really buying renewable energy or not. However, according to the Centre for Sustainable Energy the best to go for are Good Energy, Ecotricity, 100Green and Octopus. We agree. They aren’t the very cheapest available but if you combine with energy saving you’ll be ticking all boxes!
- And this really is vital… Make sure your team or co-freelancers are committed too. Ask employees to sign up to an eco-charter backed up by energy saving induction and regular team meeting discussion. Competitions and awards perhaps! If you choose (democratically of course) an energy champion from the team, make sure they are 100% backed by management = you, the boss! Get your landlord or space owner on board.
And do shout about what you are doing on social to motivate others. Energy Saving Week is an annual campaign aiming to raise awareness about energy efficiency, reduce energy bills and combat fuel poverty. Important stuff and what’s not to like?
Final true facts
Whatever type of electricity you buy, what you actually get is a mix of renewable and fossil fuel energy. What you pay for is the electricity your supplier puts into the grid. So the more we buy renewables the more the proportion of renewables in the overall supply.
Renewable electricity is now cheaper to produce than fossil fuel electricity. In the UK renewables (mainly wind and solar) account for around 50% (and growing) of electricity. In fact on 4th July 2024, renewables peaked at an incredible 88% of total electricity consumption.
Gas is different because no one is supplying 100% renewable gas at the moment, except 100Green. “Natural” gas is mains gas, fossil fuel. Biogas is very controversial because it is derived from plants which may be grown instead of food crops. Which is one reason why the (responsible) world is moving away from gas to electricity as fast as possible.
CLICK HERE for more energy saving info from Salon RE:Source
Main image: Getty