13 free (or almost free) ways you can make your Club more sustainable

1. Switch off - Make sure lights and air-conditioning aren’t left on in areas not in use, and that office equipment is switched off at the socket by staff at night

2. Don’t overheat or overcool the building – thermostats should be set at 18-20oC in winter and 24-25oC in summer. Similarly, make sure your fridges and freezers are not colder than required by food safety standards.

3. Check for leaking taps and toilets – even small leaks add up to large amounts of water over a year. To check toilets you can put some food colouring in the cistern, and if after 15 minutes there is colour in the bowl, it’s leaking. You can also get your cleaners to read the water meter when they leave the building, and read it again when the first person arrives in the morning. If it’s changed, you probably have a leak somewhere.

4. Put flow restrictors in taps and showerheads – they only cost a few dollars each and will often save thousands of litres of water each year

5. Buy compact fluorescent lights instead of incandescent globes – they cost marginally more but will pay themselves back in energy savings in less than a year. It is best to replace them instantly rather than waiting for existing globes to blow.

6. Install timers on things like Zip boils (or get staff to use a kettle instead).

7. Set your computers and printers to energy saving mode to ensure they go to sleep when not in use. Your supplier can explain how.

8. Make sure fridges and freezers are located in a well-ventilated area and away from heat sources.

9. Look in your bins to see if significant quantities of recyclables are going to landfill. In many cases, recyclable collection costs are lower than waste collection costs.

10. When cleaning beer lines, don’t overflush them. Sixty seconds is usually ample. Use litmus paper to test the pH of the rinsing water. If it stays pink, the lines should be clean (check with your cleaning chemical supplier about their specific products).

11. If you have large, older-style single button toilet cisterns, consider filling a two litre milk bottle with water in installing it in the cistern. This will reduce the cistern capacity by 2 ltrs every time you flush. (Greater savings are possible by replacing the toilet suites with more water efficient models)

12. If your kitchen staff (or contractor) is thawing meat by running water continuously over it ask them to plan ahead and put tomorrow’s meat in the fridge for a safe way of defrosting it without the water wastage.

13. Adjust the sensor controls on your sliding doors to ensure that they are not activated unnecessarily or stay open for longer than required thus allowing air conditioned air to escape the Club.