Bradford helps businesses become CitySmart
Bradford helps businesses become CitySmart
Bradford Energy Solutions have teamed up with Brisbane CitySmart (Brisbane City Council's Sustainability Agency) as part of a new Watt Savers initiative to help small to medium sized businesses increase energy efficiency.
Bradford completed an assessment of the energy use of the Queensland Theatre Company, and recommended refitting a floor of old fluorescent and halogen lighting with energy efficient lighting. The result was a saving of over 35,000kWs, representing over 10% of their energy bill or $8,700 per annum. This has enabled them to fund a children's show for regional classrooms as well as other initiatives. A win for the environment, the arts and children!
The Watt Savers program has been created to design and deliver initiatives that will ultimately make Brisbane a cleaner greener city. “Small businesses save energy and save on their bottom line and we’ve already started to see some great results,” said Megan Houghton the CEO of CitySmart. By the end of the first stage Watts Savers have helped more than 300 small to medium sized businesses save energy and their bottom line. Houghton stated “in the coming years we’re looking forward to rolling the project out across Australia and helping many more thousands of businesses”.
Energy is a big deal for businesses, in terms of operating costs it can be a substantial unnecessary expense. Bradford Energy Solutions audit of the Queensland Theatre Company made it very clear where they could become more energy efficient. “We’ve ended up changing almost 300 lights on level two of this building, which has made a dramatic difference to some of the outcomes. There was a massive reduction in power usage, about a 72% reduction which took a month off our power bill,” said Julian Messer the Venue Operations Supervisor from the Queensland Theatre Company.
Businesses are able to capitalise on the savings. The Queensland Theatre Company were able to utilise those unnecessary operational expenses and put funding towards a small kids show which would tour classrooms in regional Queensland for up to four weeks, reaching an audience of a couple thousand kids.
The Queensland Theatre Company was so impressed with stage one they were looking to move into other areas of the building, “which really brings about some big savings for us,” Messer said. Steven Powell, Queensland Commercial Sales Manager at CSR Bradford agrees, “For companies like this it is huge on their operational costs”.
Publication: 1/10/2014
Information is based on the version of the National Construction Code (NCC) which was current at the time of publication. There may be changes in subsequent versions of the code which mean parts of this case study no longer apply.
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