Ashford House based at Worship Street, home to 3 Military Intelligence Battalion (3MI Bn) receives the Green Award for being energy efficient and reducing their carbon footprint.
Major Gary Bartholomew, QM 3MI Bn,
I entered Ashford House into the Energy Efficiency Incentive Award with the aim of reducing the utility costs. This was done by providing an energy savings plan to the Army Infrastructure team.
This plan was followed in addition to educating all permanent staff and Reservists on the importance of saving energy and chasing plan goals.
Saving energy took a lot of walking the lines and ensuring people had switched off non-essential devices during the day and ensuring they had done the correct close down procedures before leaving work or going on extended time away from the office.
3MI Bn, for their award have been gifted a brand-new portable solar energy kit. This includes four light-weight solar panels and three 1500W rechargeable power stations. For your information, with 1500W you could charge your standard smartphone from zero to full – 75 times!
Any advice for other units?
We should all be looking at reducing our carbon footprint in the workplace as carbon emissions can harm our atmosphere and contribute to global warming. Just a little bit of effort from all units can help reduce global warming and just as importantly reduce the utility bills and money that can be spent on better things for our soldiers and officers.
Stuart Sams, Head of Estates
I would like to congratulate both Gary and his team at Worship Street as well as our Central Surveyor Bryan D’Costa.
Lowering energy bills is a target we all should be aiming for and not one easily reached.
What this group has shown is a real appetite and a clear vision of how small steps make a big difference and I fully encourage all Greater London site to take up this challenge.
The rechargeable power stations are at the forefront of solar technology and will give Gary and his team a way to power equipment whether in the field or at a base.
Again, well done to all and I look forward to seeing more great ideas for energy reduction in 2025!
Bryan D’Costa, Central Sector Surveyor, has a few tips on how you can reduce your carbon emissions and be more eco-friendly!
As a surveyor I work a lot with units around London. Here are a few things I know will absolutely help everyone reduce their contribution to global warming:
- Using sustainable wood that is easily available, if it is made from recycled materials even better!
- Installing Passive Infrared Sensors (PIRs) on your lighting network. PIRs operate on motion – this saves electricity. You could also replace halogen lamps with LED ones.
- With the Greater London Estate, we have started adapting our Kitchens from Gas to Electric. Wherever applicable and possible. You should too!
In relation to the green initiative at Ashford House, we have recently installed a Zip Tap, there are several benefits that can add to your “Save Earth Green Plan”.
- A Zip Tap can serve 100 cups of hot and cold water instantly, reducing time and the extra electricity needed for kettles.
- They also come with advanced submicron filtration systems. This means you can reduce your single-use plastic wastage buy not buying water bottles (your bank account will thank you too). This might sound like an advert for Zip Taps, but they do work!
- They are also safe to use, minimise burn risks and electrical fire risks.
In the longer term adopting the above will no doubt save time, energy and ultimately money.
