Are You Energy Smart?

Birmingham City Council’s Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign asks, Are You Energy Smart?

The CSR campaign encourages staff at Europe’s largest local authority to take a few simple steps to save energy, water and resources. To launch the initiative, Birmingham City Council brought in UK business video production company iceni® to deliver a film considering the environmental impact of a fictional council employee’s activities.

The creative team at iceni® delivered the short drama in the style of Britflick, Sliding Doors. The film stars Julie Westwood as Helen, who lives the same day twice… at the same time. Energy Smart Helen saves resources by switching off TVs and computer monitors and is careful not to waste water. The other Helen wastes energy, and her day goes from bad to worse as she gets covered in coffee, loses her work and gets a parking ticket.

Cathy Bentley, director at iceni® said, ‘Of course everyone knows that making energy saving choices won’t make that big a difference to their day, but if the fifty thousand employees at Birmingham City Council are energy smart, it will make a huge difference to the organisation, and the city as a whole.’

The Communications Officer at Birmingham City Council said, ‘The video has elevated Energy Smart from a one-dimensional project relying on printed material, to a topical campaign that staff are genuinely interested in and engaging with.’

‘People also commented that the tone was just right, and the video got the messages across without preaching.’

Recent figures show that the city as a whole produces six million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. The messages contained in the Energy Smart campaign are relevant to everyone across the city and beyond. So if you want to do your bit, here are a few pointers to help you start being Energy Smart.

Remember to turn off lights when they're not needed. Leaving the lights on in an average-sized office overnight can waste the energy needed to heat water for 1,000 cups of tea. (Source: Carbon Trust)

When you boil a kettle only fill it with the water you need. If everyone boiled only the water they needed to make a cup of tea instead of “filling” the kettle every time, we could save enough electricity in a year to run more than three quarters of the street lighting in the country. (Source: Defra)

Turn off TVs, computer monitors and VCRs when not in use. Every year VCRs in the UK use £113 million, and TVs £50 million, worth of electricity just waiting to be switched on. In fact, 85% of the electricity used by your VCR is consumed while it is not actually on. (Source: Energy Saving Trust)

Turn off the taps, don’t waste water. One drip per second wastes around 1200 litres of water in a year; that's around 4 litres a day; and 90 litres of water if the drips are breaking into a stream.
(Source: Environment Agency - Water Wise)

For more information contact Andi Jepson: 01283 792 990

Visit iceni at www.iceni-tv.co.uk

iceni is an independent UK corporate communications company based in the Midlands. The company has been providing strategic communications solutions for public and private sector clients since 2001.