In our last post we gave our Top Ten Tips for reducing the carbon footprint of your office. As Property Factors and Block Managers, could you give your clients tips to help them contribute positively to climate change? We’ve already started to see initiatives in the residential property management industry. Forward thinking firms like Newton Property Management have committed to investing in the installation of Electric Vehicle Charging Points. In an article in Scotland’s Herald newspaper, Director Stephen O’Neill says, ““We want to help our clients future-proof their developments and take advantage of new eco technologies, saving them money. It’s a win-win!”

In this week’s blog, we’re giving you some ideas to help encourage your clients to think climate change. Or indeed, for you to take the lead in the fight against global warming.

Top Ten Tips to Help Your Client’s Reduce the Carbon Footprint

1. Install timed/motion sensor lighting in stairwells

Contact contractors to gather some pricing to install timed or motion sensor lighting in communal stairwells.

2. Reduce single use plastic

Reduce single use plastic by opting for reusable products wherever possible and choosing cans, paper/cardboard packaging where possible.

3. Recycle well

Wash all packaging and separate recycling according to your local Council bin colour. Check their website for details on what can and can’t be put in your recycling bin(s).

4. Set up communal food waste/compost

If your local council has a food waste stream, encourage all clients to use it. Food waste in the UK is a huge issue – from an ethical and climate change perspective – encouraging your clients to reduce and manage their food waste correctly will have a positive effect.

5. Plant wildflowers in gardens to encourage biodiversity and bees

Biodiversity Is extremely important when it comes to climate change. We are facing the sixth mass extinction. And according to worldatlast.com “plants, insects and animals are dying off at abnormally fast rates and life as we know it is in danger. This time, however, the cause is not volcanic activity nor asteroid impacts. Human activity is triggering a change in global climate which has increased species extinction to between 10 and 100 times faster than the norm. The evidence is pretty clear, we are headed toward the 6th mass extinction.” We can help by growing more plants that attract different wildlife and insects in our own back garden.

6. Build a hedgehog hotel

Did you know that there was an estimated 36.5 million hedgehogs in the UK in the 1950’s and in 1995 this estimate was at 1.5 million? Building hedgehog hotels can help keep hedgehogs safe and encourage them to breed.

7. Build a bug hotel in the garden or outdoors

Following on from number 5 – did you know that 40% of insect species are declining and a third are at risk of extinction? Building a bug hotel will promote biodiversity in back gardens and help to encourage insects to thrive.

8. Use the stairs

If there are lifts in the apartment blocks, encourage clients to put up posters asking people to take the stairs at least once a  week to save energy.

9.  Install solar panels on roofs

Could you implement an initiative in your business to encourage more solar panels in blocks and self sufficient energy supplies?

10. New windows and insulation

Another initiative that could be implemented by your organisation is the installation of energy saving windows or insulation in apartment blocks that are older and where this is needed.

By introducing green/eco initiatives or passing these tips on to your clients, you could generate some positive PR in your local area and become an industry leader in sustainability and saving the planet. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Click here to read the full Newton Property Management article.