I am researching about four organisations energy policies which are: McDonalds, Tescos, EDF Energy and British Gas.

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Energy Policy

Research four organisations that uses Energy Policies

In this assignment, I am researching about four organisation’s energy policies which are: McDonalds, Tesco’s, EDF Energy and British Gas. I will be researching all four organisations but I will explore McDonalds in more detail depth. I will state each energy policy and criticise as well as justifying them.

McDonalds

McDonald’s energy policy sets targets for reducing energy consumption. How the energy savings will be achieved.

“We recognise that our energy and water consumption make a significant contribution to our environmental impact. That is why we aim to:

Minimise energy consumption in our restaurants.

Minimise the amount of water in use in our restaurants and ensure the wastewater leaving our restaurants is of a high quality.”

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Accessed on 17/10/2011

This shows that McDonalds have set targets for reducing the energy consumption. Also they believe that customers who come into the restaurant can help reduce the energy consumption by turning the car engine off when idling for long periods in the car park.

McDonalds have set two targets for reducing their energy consumption, which I have stated above and they are trying to succeed and meet the targets that they have set.

The policy that the McDonalds have carried out in practice is successful, as they have met the targets that they have set. The restaurant reduced the energy consumption by providing waterless urinals and these waterless urinals have been installed in 450 McDonald’s restaurants, and are part of the on-going refurbishment program. Also they have cleaner water discharge, which means environmental Biotech drainage systems are being rolled out to suitable restaurants to combat grease and improve the quality of our discharge water. Moreover, McDonalds has sonic alerts and these are fitted on the kitchen grills and the sonic alerts are to remind staff to return them to their standby energy saving position after use. McDonalds uses less energy in all their restaurants and they use low energy lamps and have light level sensors installed to control external lighting. All new lighting systems also have high frequency fittings.

Tesco’s

“Tesco have established a £100 million Sustainable Technology Fund which includes the installation of wind turbines, low carbon energy, ground source heat pumps, photovoltaic cells to power the tills, rainwater collection and automated recycling units for customers.    

Tesco work closely with other organisations to reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact. For example: working with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in South Korea and Thailand.”

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Tesco is changing to renewable energy resources which are firstly better for the environment because they do not produce lots of pollutants like greenhouse gases etc. It also reduces the amount of fossil fuels burnt, so saves energy and conserves our fuel supplies. They use solar energy which is renewable and wind turbines. Wind turbines are not very attractive and they make a lot of noise but they are quite reliable providers of energy so can meet Tesco’s high demands. They are also environmentally friendly – they encourage recycling by setting up recycling plants for customers to use and they collect rainwater which can be used to water plants and wash surfaces etc. Unlike some supermarkets, they do not sell carrier bags and they use a lot of them. This is bad for the environment because plastics are non-biodegradable. They should start charging money for plastic bags like other supermarkets i.e. Asda, Lidl to reduce waste and energy costs. They are also selling Fair-trade products like chocolate and coffee. This shows that Tesco’s are trying to use energy policies and they set targets such as working with other organisations to reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact.

“Installing fan inverter drives in 91 stores. These reduce the speed of the fan motor in air conditioning units, reducing the volume of air flowing into the store by 15-20%, and reducing energy consumption by up to 50%. We have also installed a further 104 ‘Intellihood’ systems, to add to the 274 installed last year. This is an extraction system, which roughly halves the amount of energy consumed by the extractor fans at in-store bakeries and staff restaurants saving 15,777 MWh of electricity worth £710,000 last year. We are working with the Carbon Trust to produce an energy efficiency training video for staff.”

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This shows that Tesco’s policy indicates how energy savings have been achieved. Tesco has achieved it in a number of stores and they have met their targets. Tesco’s have reduced the energy consumption by 50% by setting targets and achieving it. There are around 2,715 Tesco stores in the UK, but only 91 Tesco stores have been provided the fan inverter drives and this shows that the Tesco’s energy policy is not a very good policy and it is not reliable. Also they are using a lot of electricity, ...

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