1. CO2 13 Fun Resource efficiency facts
Helping to bring your organisation's staff engagement communications to life
July 2018

2. Share your successes * You’re not already measuring and monitoring?
You can do a lot to reduce your organisation’s energy, water and raw material costs by changing equipment and processes. However, to bring about and maximise improvements, it’s vital to get your colleagues on board with your resource efficiency initiatives.
And if you want to keep your colleagues on board for the long term - so they continue to recycle, turn off lights and equipment when not needed, save water, etc. – then sharing successes with them is key.
Your measuring and monitoring programme will help you quantify the resource efficiency improvements you are making*. Sharing that information with your colleagues is a great way to acknowledge the effort they have put in.
Sharing success can also help to gain the support of staff who have been resistant to change, by demonstrating the results people around them are achieving already.
Breathe life into your messages
To ensure your staff communication has a strong impact, it is best to talk about successes in a tangible way. In a way that will help staff contextualise and visualise progress.
After all, what does it really mean to save ’x tonnes of CO2, or ‘y tonnes of waste’ or ‘7 kWh of electricity’?
People are busy
The average person sees hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of advertising messages everyday. That’s worth bearing in mind. As proud as you are of your ‘show-stopping’ resource efficiency improvements, your messaging has to compete really, really hard for your colleagues’ attention.
So if you can be fun, thought provoking and attention-grabbing, then you’ll also stand a much better chance of people taking the time to consider what your messages are saying.
In this document we’ve provided 13 example resource efficiency facts. We hope they help spark an idea on ways you can develop your own messages - so that your staff communications are tangible and attention grabbing. *
You’re not already measuring and monitoring?
Start today with our free, easy-to-use templates. 2

3. saves 79kg of CO2 over a year
Turning off a single five-foot fluorescent tube light that’s normally left on during the working day
saves 79kg of CO2 over a year
How much is 79kg of CO2?
That’s the amount of CO2 produced by driving from Glasgow to Edinburgh… five and a half times.
Switch off lights
and save energy M8 3

4. and back again. saves 3,950kg of CO2 over a year
Turning off 50 five-foot fluorescent tube lights that are normally left on during the working day
saves 3,950kg of CO2 over a year
How much is 3,950kg of CO2?
That’s the equivalent CO2 emissions produced by travelling to Arran via ferry…
and back again. 4

5. saves 1kg of CO2 over a year
Turning off one PC monitor that’s normally left on during evenings and weekends
saves 1kg of CO2 over a year
Ok, this may not seem like a big saving. And it’s not - equating to annual energy savings of less than 50p.
But what if all the staff in your business, or in your building, or in the 330,000+ SMEs across Scotland left their PC monitors on at night and weekends? Overall, the energy use and CO2 impact of leaving PC monitors switched on is huge.
1kg
CO2
In addition, encouraging staff to ‘save their kg of CO2’ by switching off PC monitors at night is a great quick-win opportunity that will get them used to thinking about and acting on energy.
Switching monitors off at night is a very visible and simple change to make that will help your staff collectively take their first steps to being resource efficient. 5

6. But small changes can give
Reducing the energy used by your gas heating system by 10,000kWh
saves 2,000kg of CO2
How much is 2,000kg of CO2?
That’s equivalent to the weight of 4 highland cows.
Heating often costs Scottish organisations over half of their total energy spend.
But small changes can give
you big savings. 6

7. 11 highland cows. saves 5,400kg of CO2
Reducing the electricity used by a cooling system by 10,000kWh
saves 5,400kg of CO2
How much is 5,400kg of CO2? That’s equivalent to the weight of
11 highland cows. 2 7

8. 3,154 1litre bottles Dripping taps waste a
phenomenal amount of Scotland’s water
A dripping tap wastes enough water in one year to fill over 3,000 soft drink bottles.
3,154
1litre bottles 8 2

9. Dry cleaning techniques save a terrific amount of water
A cleaner using two 15-litre buckets of water each day, could save over 13,000 pints a year, just by switching to dry-cleaning techniques.
That’s enough to last you 37 years if you were to drink a pint glass full of water each day.
13,732 pints 9 2

10. 11,415 tea cakes. saves 275 kg CO2 a year
A business with 50 staff reducing typical domestic hot water use by just 5%
saves 275 kg CO2 a year
How much is 275 kg CO2? That’s equivalent to the weight of
11,415 tea cakes.
That’s a tea cake everyday for the next 31 years. 10 2

11. nearly 6 times. saves 2,080 sheets of paper each year
Just one person printing 40 fewer sheets of paper each week
saves 2,080 sheets of paper each year
How much is 2,080 sheets of paper? That’s enough paper to reach end-to-end across the entire length of the pitch at Hampden…
nearly 6 times. 11 2

12. more than 11 times. saves 52,000 sheets of paper each year
25 people printing 40 fewer sheets of paper
each week
saves 52,000 sheets of paper each year
How much is 52,000 sheets of paper? That’s enough paper to reach the top of Ben Nevis…
more than 11 times. 12 2

13. saves 8,792kg of CO2 emissions a year
Eliminating avoidable food waste in 50 meals per day
saves 8,792kg of CO2 emissions a year
How much is 8,792kg of CO2?
That’s enough
to fill more than 11 Edinburgh trams. 13 2

14. 2,840 haggii. - cans, plastic and glass bottles, paper and card
Recycling widely recyclable items
- cans, plastic and glass bottles, paper and card
In a small business (1-49 staff) the amount of widely recyclable items in mixed waste is equivalent to the weight of
2,840 haggii. 14 2

15. moooooooooove to the udder bin, please
Recycling widely recyclable items
- cans, plastic and glass bottles, paper and card
In a larger organisation
( staff) the amount of widely recyclable items in mixed waste is equivalent to the weight of 16 highland cows.
moooooooooove to the udder bin, please 15 2

16. Think you can do better?
Feeling creative? Got another idea on how you can bring your facts to life?
We’d love to hear and see what you have done at… 17

17. Further support
Resource Efficient Scotland can give you expert, one-to-one support to help you improve your resource use and save money.
Funded by the Scottish Government, all our advice for SMEs is completely free, independent and confidential.
Give us a call today on
Free Download:
Want further help to engage your staff? Our Staff Engagement Toolkit has lots of resources you can download, all for free.
It includes free staff training with downloadable presentation material, quiz and certificate. Plus, it includes free materials to help you set up a Green Team and run communication campaigns. 18