“The energy-saving scheme cost around €19,000 and we recouped that investment within a year. Of course, we were absolutely delighted to be nominated for the Sustainable Energy Ireland award, but the credit belongs entirely to our Serco team. We set them the original cost-saving challenge, but we never expected such outstanding results.” Bertie Kelly, Commercial Manager, National College of Ireland, Dublin.

Our commitment to conserving the world's energy resources is written into our health, safety and environment policy and applies to our own sites and our customers' sites in equal measure. Wherever possible, we support energy conservation initiatives launched by governments on a national and regional level. 

In Ireland, for example, Serco staff at the National College of Ireland in Dublin won a sustainable energy award from Sustainable Energy Ireland, a government organisation that encourages responsible energy use across the republic. The team was nominated for the award by Ireland's Electricity Supply Board after implementing a range of energy-saving measures that have cut the college's electricity bill by up to 15 per cent.

In Belgium, Serco is supporting national efforts to cut carbon emissions from the country's road network. To reduce traffic around the notoriously congested orbital routes around Brussels and Antwerp, the Belgian Government launched a radical scheme offering commuters free public transport. Serco was among the first businesses in the private sector to support it. Serco were so far ahead of the scheme that the national railways were not even sure how it was supposed to work and actually changed some details of the scheme after discussion with Serco's Belgium Director, Ian McIlwrath. Under the rules of the scheme, Serco covers 80 per cent of its staff's public transport expenses to and from work while the government makes up the balance.

We apply our energy-saving efforts to our own sites, as well as those managed by our clients. When the electricity supply contract covering Serco House in Hook, UK, came up for review, we stayed with our existing supplier, Scottish and Southern Energy, but switched to a contract that guarantees a proportion of our supply is generated from environmentally-friendly sources. Six months later, we signed a similar contract covering electricity supplies to neighbouring Enterprise House. Shortly afterwards, the Carbon Trust completed an energy audit at both sites. The results were broadly positive and we have already implemented a number of its energy-conserving recommendations, such as the use of low-wattage lightbulbs.