Footprint Friends and Current Cost have joined forces to help organisations change behaviours among their employees. Wasted energy means wasted money so both the environment and the finances benefit.

“The idea is simple”, says Karen Ford of Footprint Friends, “give people the right tools that enable them to understand the impact of their behaviour, as well as see directly how much energy they are wasting - for example at night or during the day when they are at work - and this will encourage them to turn off appliances that don’t need to be running.”

Footprint Friends will promote and deliver the scheme, called ‘Wipe out Waste’ (WOW) and Current Cost will provide the meters. The scheme involves companies and organisations buying a monitor for each of their employees, as part of their ongoing CSR and environment policies or employee benefit or eco-gift schemes. Footprint Friends will provide workshops and an online social network framework in which the employees will be encouraged to monitor their home energy habits and demonstrate how they have reduced waste and saved money. These good habits may then be imported back into the company where the culture of WOW will become the norm. Thus the employer and inevitably the shareholder/stakeholder will also benefit. Schemes can be tailored to suit an organisation’s particular needs.

A percentage of all profits from the scheme will go to the Footprint Friends Foundation to help fund environment initiatives proposed by young people and employees will be encouraged to tell their children about the site and how they can benefit.

Martin Dix, co-director of Current Cost – the innovators behind the unique monitor – says, “The beauty of our device is that it shows you how much energy you’re using right now and how much it’s going to cost you every day and every month unless you change your behaviour. It’s not about reducing usage – it’s about identifying wastage. Data is updated every six seconds and can be exported directly to your PC. Dynamic and historic data is available for up to four years. Footprint Friends is a natural delivery partner for us. With a background and track record in managing built environments, they have a real understanding of employee behaviour, building performance optimisation, as well as the ambition to give young people – that’s yours and my children - a voice in the climate change debate.”