Environmental handbook

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND

CONTROL

Issue One: November 2009

Environmental Management & Control 2009

Issue: One of 18

Environmental Policy Statement

August 2009 – July 2010

“In all our activities we will continuously work towards protecting all aspects of the environment both at local and global level’’. In order to strive towards this goal we will:

Meet all necessary legal and regulatory requirements pertaining to our business, and at each site under the management of the Company

Seek to comply fully with the Environmental Policies and Operational requirements of our Clients

Promote the awareness of all existing legislation, company practices and procedures to all employees, through training and awareness programmes, and to keep abreast of all new and pending environmental legislation

Under our Partnership Agreement with The Carbon Trust, develop and implement strategies to conserve energy and reduce our carbon emissions

Act positively to reduce the consumption of water and other natural resources at all premises under the Company’s Management

Have a positive approach to all environmental issues relating to our employees, customers, suppliers, contractors and clients

Make use of, wherever practicable, best environmental practices, when planning and developing new and existing operations

Put in place the necessary systems to educate, control and monitor the Company’s Environmental Commitment and performance Act positively to reduce the production of waste in accordance with

the National Waste Strategy at all premises under the Company’s

management Strive to minimise the disposal of waste through reuse, recycling and

recovery.


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RICHARD MILLMAN Chief Executive

INTRODUCTION

This manual is designed to give you an easy reference guide to managing the environment you live and work in. It is important to be aware that to truly adopt our corporate environmental management policy you should attempt to carry out best practice operational procedure at all times.

If you need to be encouraged to participate in our environmental management programme you should be aware of how things can help...

It is recognised that savings of between 5-10% are easily achievable through a combination of good housekeeping and basic monitoring. Reducing your expenditure, which of course will contribute to achieving your bottom line target.

You will be aware there have been changes to legislation in recent years which require us to manage in a different way. Some of this is legislation relates to utility usage and was introduced as a combative measure against the rising levels of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and global warming.

The message is clear, we need to reduce CO2 levels.

Utility management is encompassed with environmental management, our Clients have many obligations to the government relating to Agenda 21 and green issues. In many cases we are contractually obliged to have a structured policy and program in place.

In today’s businesses addressing environmental issues, is the responsible approach. And as such we cannot ignore it.

You can also save money at home!

This Guide is here primarily as a source of information. It is designed to cover areas that are associated with the Leisure Industry and looks predominantly at ‘good house’ keeping measures and no financial cost options. Implementing a successful ‘good housekeeping’ scheme will benefit your site in many ways; you will save money, improve comfort, benefit the environment and is part & parcel of efficient site management.

An important part of a successful scheme will include adopting suggested techniques highlighted in the checklists. More significantly informing, motivating and encouraging staff we believe is the key to meeting your energy reduction targets and the Leisure Connection’s environmental commitments. If we are to make a difference, every staff member on site will need to be actively involved to a varying extent with using energy & water more efficiently.

Each section includes an ‘information page’ which is used in conjunction with a ‘checksheet’ at the back of the manual (F138) , They allow you to look into areas of utility use at your site and to suggest the course of actions to take. The guide will also inform you how to track your utility usage accurately, allowing you to report on how successful your actions are.


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The Environmental Control Program fits into the company’s wider health and safety, environmental and maintenance strategies.

SAVING ENERGY IN YOUR BUILDING

YOU CAN SAVE UP TO 20 PER CENT ON YOUR ENERGY BILLS BY MANAGING ENERGY SUCCESSFULLY

(SOURCE: CARBON TRUST).

The simple steps recommended by the Carbon Trust include: Heating Are thermostats working and set at the lowest comfortable temperature? Are there any cold draughts from windows or doors? Are windows and doors open when heating or air conditioning is on? Lighting Are you still using traditional tungsten light bulbs? Are lamps, fittings and roof lights clean? Are lights switched off if there’s sufficient daylight or rooms are not in use? Do you have any old large diameter fluorescent tube lights? In the office Are computers left on overnight? Are monitors switched off when not in use, such as during lunch breaks? Is your photocopier left on overnight, and off when not in use? In the Halls Are pumps, fans or lights switched off when the equipment they serve is not in use? Can you hear fans on when they should be off? Metering and monitoring are at the heart of energy management. Gain actual figures from meters, rather than relying on estimated bills. Look for trends to find out how your energy is being used.

Cut down

o Turning off lights and equipment can save around 15 per cent of energy costs. o Reducing the temperature by just 1ºC can save 8 per cent.

Maintain well

o Maximise energy efficiency by regularly servicing plant and equipment.

Stay snug

o Heating uses half your office’s energy; draught proofing and pipe insulation can reduce

heat loss significantly.


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REPORTING AND FEED BACK… MONITORING

Under the environmental policy statement, we are all responsible for good practice and ensuring that we have a uniform stance on environmental issues.

The Group Technical team, particularly your RTM are accountable for the ultimate success of this program. Any difficulties you may have, should be discussed with your RTM in the first place.

Each site will have a energy champion who is a point of contact for the whole team at your site. Where possible, environmental information will be channelled to your Energy and Environmental Champion, Business Managers will be required to provide support and motivation to the Energy and Environmental Champion, however all team members have a key role in providing the information required and to monitor the situation in your site.

To enable us to manage the situation the following information is required:

INFORMATION

METER READINGS ARE TO BE TAKEN DAILY AT 12.00 NOON AND THE ONLINE REPORTING

COMPLETED.

This information will be used to:

Track consumptions, issue targets and quantify annual utility budgets.

Assess performance of reduction target

Identify potential savings

Renegotiate utility contracts

Validate utility invoices

Calculate monthly accruals for Profit & Loss report

Periodical reports will be compiled for each site and a more detailed report will be available to the Regional Managers / Board each month to track progress.


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TRAINING, AIDS AND UPDATES

Each quarter there will be training seminars covering basic utility management topics and other environmental issues. These will be available to Business Managers and their Energy and Environmental Champion. You will be regularly informed of new environmental legislation and recommendations relating to our industry. A ‘HIT LIST’ has been produced outlining key areas you can impact upon to have a quick effect on your utility costs. This can be used in conjunction with this handbook. The Leisure Connection Bright Ideas scheme welcomes an suggestions you or your team may have in ways to save energy, resources or ways that you can become more involved. Please submit these ideas to [email protected] In order to manage your utility use we ask you to ensure the following tasks are completed and records are maintained. Complete the F138 Environmental Action Plan and the Daily walk the floor sheet. This requires you to firstly plan to reduce your use of energy and secondly to make sure that you are checking on a daily basis that you are on track and on target to meet your energy and environmental targets There are a number of key areas where you are able to make dramatic savings if you monitor and plan to manage usage. This manual will be updated periodically to ensure that we are giving you the moist support we can in your targets to reduce wastage and consumption.


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DEC CERTIFICATE This nearly invisible poster located at the front of your building is the real challenge you face. The certificate will show you the energy rating of your site. If you are under the expectation line then you are off on the right foot. If you are over the line you have more work to do than most. This is your first real challenge; you are required to work towards a plan that will at least drop you under the average for your type of building, and then some more. Look at your DEC certificate and set yourself a target to achieve this financial year.

YOUR CURRENT SCORE IS:___________ YOUR SITE TARGET IS:______________ SIGNED: ______________________ BUSINESS MANAGER.

FAILURE TO DISPLAY

DEC's - The penalty is £500 for failing to display a DEC at all times in a prominent place clearly visible to the public and £1,000 for failing to have possession of a valid advisory report. A maximum fine of £5,000 may be imposed dependent on the nature of the breach of regulations.


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LIGHTING

Good Lighting in Sports Centre’s is very important, if we get it right it can increase our revenue by attracting more customers and improve the buildings environment for everyone. If we get it wrong it can lead to health and safety concerns, operational issues and customer complaints. As lighting technology is improving all the time, so too are efficiencies. We can achieve more effective use of energy in lighting by following some of the suggested actions in the check list (form F138). Make sure that you complete the checks on the walk the floor sheet on a regular basis. Ask another team member to walk the floor on a regular basis to make sure you get a second view, making sure they know what to look for.

Unused squash courts... lights left on! Outdoor all weather pitch... lights left on! Sports Hall empty... lights left on! Outdoor changing rooms... lights left on! Disabled toilets... lights left on! School or overflow changing rooms... lights left on! Function room toilets... lights left on! Store rooms... lights left on!

Good housekeeping will typically take 10% off your energy bill, and therefore is an important area to concentrate on. Lighting and small power will make up 22% and 30% of a wet and dry sites energy costs respectively. So achievable reductions in lighting power represent a 30-45% reduction in overall lighting consumption... what is 10% of your electrical bill worth to your business?

Low energy light bulbs are a must... plan to replace all bulbs with low energy bulbs. Can you fit PIR switches in areas of low usage? Are the lighting diffusers clean? Are windows washed and letting in natural light? Are your blinds stopping natural light getting in? Are roof lights clean? Do your outside lights switch off at the right time? What lights are left on in the building at nigh time?

Review the suggestions in your F138 and implement suggestions TODAY!


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HEATING

Heating and ventilation consume the majority of energy in both wet and dry sites, in the order of 34% of energy consumed in a wet sports Centre goes on heating, and around 38% in a dry Centre. Most of our centre’s are heated by natural gas boilers, some will be more efficient than others, particularly on newer sites. The efficiency of your boilers will be managed by your boiler maintenance service provider, please ensure that they issue efficiency results to you after all major servicing. Important areas for consideration are or include:

Boiler Plant Burners Flue Gas indicators Heating Distribution system Your own Domestic Hot water!

In the case of Boiler servicing, ensure that six monthly / yearly (ideally March & September ) servicing records the results of this analysis as it can give a good indicator to the health of the boiler. A poorly maintained boiler will, effect it’s efficiency. For example a site with a £50,000 heating bill. If the boiler efficiency dropped 3% from 70% to 67% the fuel bill would rise by about £2,200 per year. Keeping close check on open windows, ventilation rates, open doors and wherever possible adding doors or barriers between areas of varying temperature will ultimately increase your thermal efficiency. Heat recovery as a matter of course is evaluated with any new heating plant installation. This and other high-cost saving measures, can save up to 20% on heating costs, however these can be looked at on an individual capex basis.


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WATER MANAGEMENT

Wet sites have up to 70% of total energy costs associated with swimming pools, showing the importance of getting things right. Pool water not only has to be paid for in consumption but also heating, disposal (effluent/sewage) and chemical costs. The more you backwash the more the cost to your business. However there is a balance between safety, cost and bather comfort. Make sure the balance is correct. Ask your RTM to review the water backwashing procedures and make recommendations. In dry sites approximately 60% of water usage and energy cost is for hot water. Make sure examination of your heating systems, pipe work, lagging, valves etc get priority, a reduction in these areas will make a big difference to your performance. Typical ‘wet’ site water usage:

40% Pool 50% Showers 10% Sanitation

Typical ‘dry’ site water usage: 80% Showers 20% Sanitation

When you find a leak or one is reported around the Centre, get it fixed as soon as you can. Even a small drip from a tap can cost between £5 - £150 per year depending on the flow. Don’t forget pump seals, these can cost up to £2,100 per year and often go unrepaired... Low cost measures such as urinal controllers & low cost shower heads, payback with 1 year and can save 20% of water costs associated with the toilet. The figures above show how much water we use in our showers. Special attention must be paid in these areas to ensure they are working efficiently. Use the form F138 to identify and implement some changes TODAY!


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POOL PLANT

Maintenance must be regular, planned and carried out by trained staff. Routine monitoring of plant condition, checking for visual leaks and ‘hot pipes’ (un-lagged) must become part of our daily duties. With so many settings associated with pool plant, it is important that these are documented and readily available for inspection and management. With pools, both heating and ventilation are important as the correct balance is must be achieved. Out of balance and the environment can become uncomfortable to customers and staff and could lead to corrosive problems. In pools we try to prevent too much evaporation. This is minimised by keeping the water and air temperature at the same temperature or as is generally recommended, the air 1oC higher in temperature will reduce evaporation. In practice pool side temperatures in the order of 28oC are acceptable, since high level extract temperature will meet this criteria. Excessive condensation problems should be reported to and investigated by the RTM.

Economies can be achieved by:

Working to maintain optimum ventilation rates and pool water temperature. Main Pool 29oC - 29.5oC Teaching Pool 30oC - 30.5oC Good management of waste water: Back washing procedures Losses from chemical monitoring sample lines Ozone cooling systems General filtration valve leakage Using a pool cover

Increasing pool temperatures above the recommended temperatures will add 5% to your pool heating costs for every degree. This would cost several thousands of pounds a year to your budgets so make sure you keep the pool to the correct temperatures. Costs associated with pools include:

Water costs Back washing Chemical costs Heating Effluent


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Please use the form F138 to look for areas, that you could save energy in.


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MOTIVE POWER

Generally, ‘motive power’ is defined as a natural agent (as water, steam,

wind, electricity, etc.), used to impart motion to machinery...

For a typical centre the ratio of electricity use to gas use is 1 to 4, but in terms of cost this ratio becomes 5 to 2 (electricity cost to gas cost).

Electricity per kWh day rate: 4.5 p

Electricity per kWh night rate: 2p

Gas per kWh : >1.0p

It will be important to understand charges associated with your supply of electricity. This will be explained in the Utility seminars. However you a charged for maximum demand, which is the highest usage figure at any one time in a month. This is often first thing in the morning when you open the building; everything is switched on at the same time, causing a surge in power usage. You can make an immediate difference by making sure that things are switched on over the first hour of opening rather than all at once. Many of the leisure pools in the estate also use loads of water features to entertain the public. These cost large amounts of money to run so try to use them sparingly. For example a wave machine of 37-60 kW used for 1 hour a day for a year will cost between £675- £1100 to run. Running water features for longer periods will increase your costs significantly. Again there is a balance between cost and customer enjoyment… unhappy customers may not come back as often as happy ones !

Keep a close eye on portable appliances, they must be tested by law (PAT test cert.). Periodically (check H&S manual for details) how these appliances are used as they can creep your power consumption back up without you knowing it.

It is a good exercise to look at your consumption overnight, between midnight and 7:30 am the electricity consumed will give you an idea of your base load. Theoretically this can be 29% of your daily consumption, if you keep everything on overnight. Typically we see base loads of 19-23%, we believe sites could lower this figure and ask you to target 12 to 15% as your overnight consumption target… look at your F138 for suggestions on how to lower this figure.

The main use of electricity in our buildings is motive power, contributing virtually 100% to overnight use and 30-40% on day use. Major items are water pumps, water feature pumps, Air Handling Units (AHU). A further 5-10% is contributed from smaller items like computers, photocopiers, vending machines and room heaters.


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AIR CONDITIONING

Air conditioning or comfort cooling is now becoming more common place particularly in relation to fitness suites and dance studios. You will appreciate it as it meets the customer’s needs during warm periods. Comfort cooling is costly to run, as it relies on using electricity. Comfort cooling systems are designed to operate in closed environments. This means that doors and windows that are left open will make it impossible to maintain design temperature. This results in excessive consumption and reduces the life of the equipment and causes customers to complain. Check the ‘HIT LIST’ to follow for standard temperatures, do not try and achieve a temperature that the system was not designed for. Windows will bring solar gains, excessive heat in the summer reducing the efficiency of the system, try to avoid this. Ventilation Ventilation is important for creating the correct environment for the buildings use, It is particularly relevant in Pool Halls, and it is often overlooked when closing down for the evening. It may account for up to 27% of your energy usage, or up to 45% in pool halls. Reference is made to ventilation in other sections of this handbook, please refer to these sections as well. Use the form F138 to look at further areas of investigation.


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WINTER / SUMMER SETTINGS

Heating energy is directly proportional to the weather. When it’s cold we use more, when it’s hot we use less. During late spring to early autumn the opportunity exists to switch certain items of plant off. We can change the settings of boilers and lighting to take into account seasonal factors, outside temperature & daylight hours. In most sites we have a continual demand for heat, however during warmer periods sections of the heating system can be switched off:

Pool \ Pool Hall - Continuous Variable temperature circuit - Seasonal Constant temperature circuit , dry side - Seasonal Domestic Hot Water - All year round occupation.

You must take a proactive approach to the operation of plant. Time settings can be varied, days can be omitted, solar clocks can be adjusted, time clocks and light sensors etc. will all have winter/summer settings, make sure you are using the right setting. You may find your ventilation rate will increase in summer. Time settings are also used in plant and equipment that are not dependent on time of year, but in these cases the time of operation in important i.e. Don’t put everything to come on at the same time.

The F138 check sheet has areas for you to explore and implement.


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ENERGY AWARENESS

If you are to meet your reduction target you will have to include energy awareness issues in staff training, 10 minute meetings, daily huddles and all team meetings. You must ensure that all operational staff receive the correct training and you must motivate them to care! Good housekeeping measures should now be included in all job descriptions. In this way, your staff will be more aware of how to switch lights off, turn down ventilation at night, close doors and windows etc. This places the onus on all employees to act responsibly to utility consumption issues. Poster campaigns are also effective, use notice boards to advertise your awareness campaign, this way you also alert the public to the problem as well, this can be beneficial to customer / client relations. .

ENVIRONMENTAL BOARD: You should develop your own customer information board that includes details about recycling, about energy reduction and the work we are doing towards reducing our impact upon the environment, both locally and nationally as a company. This board should be as visible as all of our corporate notice boards and portray the same professional image. On the board you are permitted to put information the size of two A2 posters. Corporate posters are available through the Energy team and your Regional Energy Champion. Switch me off stickers and posters are available through the carbon trust. Don’t forget to speak with your client who may have a whole department dedicated to Environmental issues, they could be a great source of interesting information, facts and figures. You may choose to use carbon dioxide emissions for Public Relations exercises and on your environmental board. Have a look at www.carbontrust.co.uk for more information.

Use the DEC certificate to compare your DEC score to national performance figures for Leisure Centre’s; it is a useful indicator of how your site is comparing to the rest of the benchmarking leisure facilities. However we place greater emphasis on what we are achieving now, against what was achieved in your site this time last year, in terms of units used rather than cash values.


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BUILDING FABRIC

Building’s vary enormously in design, construction and insulation standard. Heat losses from all buildings is unavoidable, however retrospective actions can be taken to improve thermal efficiencies:

Roof insulation Cavity Wall insulation Conversion to Double Glazing Draught proofing Draught lobbies

These generally fall within high cost measures, but should be considered during major refurbishment, essential maintenance works or problem solving. Patching insulation, checking for draughts from windows and doors etc. is an important part of good housekeeping and will result in improvements in your buildings heat retention so assign this task to someone today.

Please use Form F138 to look at and monitor these areas.


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CONCLUSION AND FURTHER READING Recycling waste, carefully managing the environmental controls in place within your Business, mentoring and coaching your team to understand and perform the key tasks required to save energy, reduce utility usage and waste, will all improve the profitability of your business and reduce the environmental impact your site has on its community. Team ‘buy in’ will come from understanding and believing... an ‘environmental culture’ will come from working at it to make sure it’s engrained in everything you do in your site. Do you have environmental control as a standard part of your agenda for team meetings at all levels? Useful web links... http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/default.ct http://www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk.html Read and understand... LCQMS LC 2.5 Environmental Control Your Energy Champion, RTM and our Energy team have a number of resources to share with you, please visit the intranet for more details.

Environmental handbook

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Transcript of Environmental handbook