Reducing energy use
Find out more from Take a Green Step about 5 affordable ways to reduce energy consumption. It is aimed at hotels, but the information is also useful for other tourism businesses. They have also produced a guide about how you can communicate with guests so they can be eco-friendly during their visit and help your business save money.
Low Carbon Dorset
Low Carbon Dorset offer free technical support for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects until March 2025.
Waterside Holiday Park case study shows how they lowered their energy bills using solar power, LEDS and thermal efficiency. The Waterside Holiday Group operate three holiday parks in Weymouth. This project focused on improving the energy efficiency and increasing the renewable energy at their Waterside and Chesil Vista sites. By installing 115 kWp of solar panels, switching all exterior lighting to LEDs, and fully lagging all pipes in their pool plant room will result in an annual saving of £16,000 a year in energy costs and a reduction of 65 tonnes of CO2e. They received a project grant from Low Carbon Dorset of £35,636.75.
Bridport Leisure Centre case study contains information about installing LED lighting with £3,400 saved annually in energy costs and a reduction of 13 tonnes of CO2 per year. In order to reduce their extremely high energy demand the sports trust replaced the old light fittings in their sports hall and squash courts with 34 highly efficient LEDs. They received a project grant from Low Carbon Dorset of £5,210.60.
Harlees Fish and Chips in Verwood case study shows how they have reduced their carbon footprint through the installation of solar panels and being energy efficient. Annually they will save 11 tonnes of CO2e and £2,095 in energy bills. Instead of replacing one of their fryers like-for-like, Harlees invested in a high efficiency replacement fryer – this upgrade will reduce their gas consumption by an estimated 30%. They also installed solar panels (6kWp) to help tackle the emissions from their lighting and refrigeration. They received a project grant from Low Carbon Dorset of £20,786.
Riversmeet Leisure Centre in Gillingham case study illustrates how this not-for-profit community asset implemented an energy efficiency project which will save them £48,000 per year in energy costs and reduce their carbon footprint by 195 tonnes of CO2e annually. In 2019, Riversmeet took significant steps to reduce the energy use and costs of their leisure facility by completely redesigning their pool heating and ventilation to be much more energy efficient using a novel heat pump system. They also installed 157 LED bulbs and 12 water and energy saving aerating shower heads. They received a project grant from Low Carbon Dorset of £130,070.40.
