An active awareness campaign to save energy has resulted in Rural Solutions SA dropping its energy consumption at its city based offices by 16 % over the past two years.

Situated at Level 8 of 101 Grenfell Street the government-owned business is the ‘front door’ to a range of services that are available to help improve the rural economy, environment and communities.

 The 8 % reduction in the past two financial years defies the building trend where consumption has increased significantly.

Carbon dioxide output had been reduced by 10 tonnes in the past two years.

Environmental Coordinator Mathew Jeffrey said Rural Solutions SA had developed an action plan as a part of their Environmental Management System and set a target to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2010.

An awareness campaign to change behaviour when it came to energy use included:

• Training sessions on managing environmental impacts
• Promotional material explaining the benefits of reduced energy use in an environmental and financial sense
• Tips on how to reduce energy use in the workplace
• Regular emails reminding people to turn off their lights and computers prior to the weekend and holiday seasons

Mr Jeffrey said a significant saving had been made by staff simply turning off computers and other equipment when out and overnight, and turning off lights when office areas were not in use.

“Investigating new lighting technologies, more flexible switching to reduce the number of work stations controlled by each switch and purchasing more energy efficient appliances will further reduce consumption,” he said.

“Importantly we will continue to promote positive behaviour towards energy use.”