Reduce energy wastage wherever you find it. Leaving electrical devices on is one of the most common causes of energy wastage.

For instance, lights, heating and ventilation, all of which should be switched off when not in use. You could even try lowering lighting levels for stock taking, replenishing and cleaning.

Occupancy sensors detect whether or not someone is in the room, in order to determine when to turn on the lights, which is particularly useful for stock rooms and toilets.

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Similarly, fitting daylight sensors on internal and exterior lighting such as car parks and signage could provide closer control and possible savings, by ensuring lights are only active when dark outside, automatically switching off at sunrise.

As Heating/Ventilation typically accounts for 40% of energy used in a typical retail environment (excluding food retailers), there are lots of opportunities to save energy.

In cold weather, most shoppers will be wearing warm outdoor clothing, meaning the temperature within your store doesn't need to be set too high. Linking your store trading setpoint to ambient conditions can help with this massively.

Don’t let the heat escape! Open doors allow warm air to escape in exchange for cold air in winter and vice versa in summer. By keeping doors closed, the need for over door heaters is reduced.

Make sure your business hours and BMS systems are in sync with each other.

The energy used by refrigeration is typically half of its total electrical consumption, so linking the refrigeration controls in with the HVAC controls can help to manage how the energy is distributed.

Refrigeration systems do not like humid or hot air in the store, which is why integrating with the HVAC equipment and utilising free heat/cool with the fresh air/recirculation air dampers can reduce extreme ambient conditions being brought into the store.

Fit doors on the display refrigerators, turn off internal display lights out of hours. If display refrigerators have pull down thermal insulating blinds, ensure these are closed outside of working hours.

4. Employee Behaviour Change

In the fight against wasting Energy, your staff can be your most important asset.

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Train your staff to use equipment correctly and energy efficiently, draw up an energy saving plan, appoint an employee energy champion, set energy saving targets, so you can then measure and communicate energy savings.