Energy Letter Campaign
We invite you to join our energy letter campaign.
If you visit an overheated shop, office, café, church or any public place we have prepared a letter template for you to send which asks them to lessen the environmental impact of their energy use and suggests ways they could do that.
Please use the following letter, or download it from here, and adapt it to suit the particular shop, office, café, or church etc that you wish to write to.
Re: Enquiry about energy use at your premises
Dear Madam / Sir,
I was in your premises recently and found them to be overheated. I decided to write to ask you to consider some suggestions about energy use which could reduce climate change and cut your energy bills.
Climate change is being caused because we are putting far too much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. I feel it is important to look after our world for future generations, and that we can all do our part.
Firstly, I would ask you to follow the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of heating buildings to no more than between 18 and 22 degrees Celsius. Heating your building to a lower temperature would of course reduce carbon dioxide emissions and expenditure on fuel.
Secondly, have you considered using a green energy supplier’s Dual Fuel Tariff for gas and power? While all energy production and consumption has some environmental footprint, renewable energy presents an opportunity to lessen that impact significantly – particularly as the fossil fuel industry’s dependency on unconventional and more polluting sources grows – for instance, tar sands, heavy oil and oil shales.
And thirdly, now that more and more buildings have fitted rooftop solar electric (photovoltaic or PV) panels, might you follow suit? Small-scale generation has become an important move away from centralised power distribution, ensures security of supply, and, with the Government’s Feed-in Tariff, could prove a lasting investment.
I hope that you will be able to support one, or all, of these ideas, and so contribute to a new energy future.
Yours sincerely,
Name:
Address:
email:
You may wish to include the scientific and institutional references for “thermal comfort” in buildings in your letter. See below for a selection of key texts, but there are many others.
References
ECI (2005). “40% House”, Environmental Change Institute, Chapter 4, “Thermal comfort and control”, 2005, Section 4.2 “Heating”, Page 33, ISBN 1 874370 39 7.
http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/40house.php
http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/downloads/40house/40house.pdf
http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/downloads/40house/chapter04.pdf
HSE (1992). “Workplace health, safety and welfare”, Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, Approved Code of Practice, UK Government, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 1992, Regulation 7, “Temperature in indoor workplaces”, ISBN 978 0 7176 0413 5.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l24.htm
http://books.hse.gov.uk/hse/public/saleproduct.jsf?catalogueCode=9780717604135
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l24.pdf
HSE (2013). “Heat stress in the workplace : A brief guide”, UK Government, Health and Safety Executive, INDG451.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/thermal/factors.htm
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg451.htm
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg451.pdf
Marmot (2011). “The Health Impacts of Cold Homes and Fuel Poverty”, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London (UCL), and Marmot Review Team, and Friends of the Earth, Chapter 1, “Introduction”, Paragraph 3, Page 11, ISBN 978–1–85750–343–2.
http://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/projects/the-health-impacts-of-cold-homes-and-fuel-poverty/the-health-impacts-of-cold-homes-and-fuel-poverty-full-report.pdf
NHS (2005). “Housing and public health : a review of reviews of interventions for improving health”, UK Department of Health, Health Development Agency (HDA), National Health Service (NHS), National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), 2005, “Cold”, Paragrah 4, Page 9, ISBN: 1-84629-083-X.
http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/housing_MAIN%20FINAL.pdf
Ormandy and Ezratty (2012).
“Health and thermal comfort : from WHO guidance to housing strategies”, by David Ormandy and Véronique Ezratty, Energy Policy, Volume 49, Pages 116-121, October 2012, ISSN 0301-4215, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.09.003.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511006926
http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/42205/1/WRAP_Ormandy_Ormandy-Ezratty%20FINAL%202011-10-31.pdf
WHO (1987). “Health Impact of Low Indoor Temperatures”, Report on a WHO meeting, B. Bytchenko and E. Giroult, World Health Organisation, Regional Office for Europe, Section 2, “The Indoor Environment of At-Risk Groups”, Page 2.
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/euro/ehs/EURO_EHS_16.pdf
WHO (1988). “Guidelines for Healthy Housing”, R. P. Ranson, World Health Organisation, Regional Office for Europe, 1988, Section 2.8, “Indoor climate requirements”, Section 2.8.1, “Thermal environment”, “Thermal comfort”, Sub-Section (b), “Control measures”, Pages 154 – 157.
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/euro/ehs/EURO_EHS_31_part1.pdf
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/euro/ehs/EURO_EHS_31_part2.pdf
WHO (2007). “Housing, Energy and Thermal Comfort : A review of 10 countries within the WHO European Region”, World Health Organisation, Regional Office for Europe, EUR/06/5072464, “The Way Forward”, Page 9.
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/97091/E89887.pdf
WHO (2009), “Damp and Mould : Health risks, prevention and remedial actions”, Information brochure, World Health Organisation, and Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), 2009, Section 3, “Taking action to control excessive moisture and condensation”, “How to prevent condensation”, Item C, Page 7.
http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/environment-and-health/air-quality/publications/2009/damp-and-mould-health-risks,-prevention-and-remedial-actions2
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/78636/Damp_Mould_Brochure.pdf
WHO (2009). “Dampness and Mould”, “WHO guidelines for indoor air quality”, World Health Organisation, Europe, 2009, Chapter 3, Paragraphs 3 – 5, Page 34, ISBN 978 92 890 4168 3.
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/43325/E92645.pdf
WHO (2011). “Health in the green economy”, “Health co-benefits of climate change mitigation – Housing sector”, Section 3.5.2, Page 54, ISBN 978 92 4 150171 2.
http://www.who.int/hia/green_economy/housing_report/en/index.html
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789241501712_eng.pdf
“Health in the green economy”, “Co-benefits to health of climate change mitigation – Housing sector”, Executive summary
http://www.who.int/hia/brochure_housing.pdf
WHO (2012) “Environmental health inequalities in Europe”, Assessment report, World Health Organisation, Regional Office for Europe, 2012, Section “Inequalities in keeping the home adequately warm”, Introduction, Page 43, ISBN 978 92 890 0260 8.
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/157969/e96194.pdf
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Comments on "Energy Letter Campaign"
Roger Wright:
Thank you for this well-informed initiative. I am intending to have an eco-hints page on our website and will definitely recommend that our parishioners use this letter.
Herbert Eppel:
Excellent initiative, thank you. Reminds me of the Leicester Friends of the Earth 'open shop door campaign' some time in the last millennium. I can dig out some photographs if anyone is interested.
Jo:
Please NoteGreen Christian David Penney has contributed a short article on energy conservation in response to the Energy Letter campaign - find it here :-https://www.greenchristian.org.uk/archives/6155Please continue to submit comments and short articles on the subject of energy consumption in buildings.
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