Council helps community cut costs and CO2

More than £1.8 billion worth of energy is wasted in the UK by leaving appliances on standby at work and home. The Big Switch Off 2009 campaign in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland showed local residents that each household could save around £37 every year. This is particularly important at a time of recession and rocketing fuel prices. 

The campaign involved businesses, community groups and schools and brought together several energy and money saving initiatives. It also helped the councils involved to meet targets for NI 185, 'CO2 reduction from local authority operations', and NI 186 'Per capita CO2 emissions in the local authority area'.

Key learnings for other councils

• Many people are put off by hearing about climate change and threats to the next generation, but everyone is keen to know how they can save some money.
• The campaign worked because it offered something for everyone – individuals, community and faith groups, the voluntary sector, businesses and schools.
• Campaigns such as this help councils to achieve their NI 186 targets.
• Giving households energy monitors was a good way of opening people's eyes to electricity wastage – these were made available free of charge from local libraries, resulting in around 800 'borrowings' in a year.
• Engaging with youths is a very important and short-film making and poster design competitions were remarkably effective in that sense.
• The campaign launch and business breakfast was a great way to engage with different interest groups.
• Emails sending a ‘tip of the day’ worked well as a way conveying campaign messages.
• It is important to promote the campaign through media, council and voluntary sector publications, events, libraries and schools.
• 'Freebies' play a vital role when trying to engage new people – tea towels listing 'top tips' for energy saving were snapped up out at public events.

Staff awareness-raising events at several local authorities have contributed to achievement of the NI 185 target. For example, Leicestershire County Council saved nearly five per cent of its energy during Big Switch Off week. Annually, that would be a saving of £18,283 – equivalent to 212 tonnes of CO2.

Who was involved?

Big Switch Off is a partnership of local authorities aiming at reducing energy waste. Environmental Action for a Better Leicestershire (ENABLE) is the Leicestershire environment partnership. ENABLE started the Big Switch Off campaign in 2008 in partnership with North West Leicestershire District Council.

The encouraging results of 2008 led to wider campaign in 2009 and involved staff at local authorities, families, community groups, businesses and schools. To engage with different interest groups, awareness campaigns, exhibitions, competitions and an energy quiz were organised. The effectiveness of the campaign was measured with help from Central Networks, which supplies electricity to the region.

The problems and how we tackled them

Coordination of the sub-regional campaign demanded a lot of manpower. ENABLE and North West Leicestershire District Council played the role of lead partners and provided much-needed leadership. Major decisions about the campaign were taken by the steering group.

The venue and organisation of steering group and sub-committee meetings was demanding. This responsibility was therefore shared among the partners on a rolling basis.

It has been difficult to fund such a big campaign. Leicestershire County Council put a joint bid for the sub-region to the East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (EMIEP), which provided funding for a couple of years. ENABLE sponsored some of the competition prizes and all other partners provided match funding in terms of manpower. We secured a small amount of private sponsorship, and hope to be able to secure more in future years.

Resource development was delayed due to accountability. Lead partners took up the responsibility of resource development and managing accounts.

The campaign coincided with Hindu New Year 'Diwali' – the Festival of Lights. There was an issue about sending out mixed messages telling people to switch off lights at the time of Diwali. This was tackled through representation by Hindu groups at the launch event and sending out a press release.

Outcomes and impact

The Big Switch Off 2009 took place for a week in October and encouraged everyone to switch off appliances and lights that are left on unnecessarily.

A launch event and business breakfast was well attended and won coverage in the media.

Family Challenge was a competition between 16 households to see which could save the most electricity over a year, which ended during the Big Switch Off week. The winners managed to cut their electricity use by 35 per cent – a saving of £20 a month. The story was reported in the media. 

Upper schools and colleges took part in a film-making competition to make a short film about energy saving and climate change.

Schools were asked design certificates for schools, businesses and organisations taking part in the Big Switch Off 2009.

During the week a total of 372 MWh of electricity was saved compared to what is typically used at that time of year. This is the equivalent to leaving on 66,000 light bulbs of 100 watts for eight hours a day.

The overall electricity saving was equivalent to 0.5 per cent of the demand, saving nearly £50,000. This would be a saving of £2.6 million if the same practices continued throughout the year.

The Big Switch Off 2009 culminated in huge saving encouraging resource efficiency and engaging families, community groups, schools and businesses in the campaign.

What we could have done better

We could have:

• strengthened partnership working – some councils in the county had limited or no input into the campaign.
• widened our engagement with interest groups, although we worked closely with big businesses, faith groups and other partnerships.
• prepared campaign resources well in advance.
• avoided the clash with Diwali and the problem of sending out mixed messages.
  

Next steps

We have carried out a comprehensive review of the campaign through a regional improvement and efficiency partnership (RIEP) consultant and would like to embed suggestions of the review in Big Switch Off 2010.

Contact

Hetal Patel
Sustainable Development Officer
telephone: 0116 3057068
email: hetal.patel@leics.gov.uk

Useful links: where to find out more

Recession helps promote energy monitoring

Intelligent metering in Leicester

The Big Switch Off website

Page published February 2010.