Camden Council recently started a “Better Climate for Camden” scheme, which offers free advice to businesses in the London Borough of Camden on improving efficiency, reducing CO₂ emissions and increasing profitability. Alara is taking part in the scheme and last week we had a visit from one of Camden Council’s Environmental Policy Officers to talk about what we are already doing to reduce our impact on the environment and advise us on anything else that we can do.

The main area that we can improve on is the way that we heat our factory. At the moment we use electric bar heaters in the production areas, which are very old and very inefficient. If we wanted to replace the heaters with more efficient ones, we could get a grant for up to 50 % of the cost of the equipment. Other areas we can save energy are by making sure that doors shut properly and fitting draught excluders around windows and doors. In Unit 1 we also have a large gas heater above the door that blows hot air into the warehouse. This is positioned in the wrong place really as people don’t generally work in the area that it is heating, and being so close to the door, a lot of the heat is lost straight away.

I found the visit really useful even though we have already done a lot to reduce our energy consumption. I would advise all businesses in Camden to have one of these consultations as not only are they free, they could also save your business money. For more information you can visit the Better Climate for Camden website. If you have a business that is not in Camden, find out if your local council is running a similar scheme – it really is worth it!