August 2022 Queen Anne’s School solar project – phase 1
The first phase of the solar installation started on Tuesday 9 August 2022 and will see the installation of 153 400w panels being installed that aims to provide a 20% return on investment.
The Cost Reduction Company prides itself on delivering sustainable initiatives that responds to wider economic circumstances which can impact schools and businesses alike.
We had originally planned to invest in solar at a slightly later date, but given the effects the Ukrainian crisis has had on energy prices, I have decided to start it this summer.
There’s no doubt its an attractive investment with a decent short payback period, you can save a lot of money.
Ed Hellings, Bursar at Queen Anne’s School
Upgrade to LED lighting with Light as a Service (LaaS), 1,300 installed across the school, and still going..
We have had a relationship with Queen Anne’s School for over 7 years, during that time we have helped them save money and become more sustainable on a wide range projects. One of the current projects on the go at the school is the Light as a Service (LaaS) package which has enabled them to move through the school and upgrade there lighting to LED with no upfront costs.
£66,000 Savings made so far – LED, utility bills & rebates
I would highly recommended the Light as a Service contract we have entered into with the help of CRC.
We managed to install the best quality Philips lighting throughout the main part of the school, without any capital outlay up front. The savings from the electricity and maintenance cover the cost of the contract and we will have to maintenance or replacement costs for our lighting going forward.
The reaction from our staff and pupils to the improvement in lighting has been very positive and it helped us reduce our carbon footprint straight away, I would highly recommend you have a look.
Ed Hellings, Bursar at Queen Anne’s School
Helping clients with environmental projects.
Initially commissioned to look into cleaning expenditure and the school’s current photocopying contract. We quickly identified that the school’s photocopying contract had an unreasonably large profit margin for the supplier and was vastly expensive for the machines that were on site. Berkhamsted’s current set up consisted of 22 copiers, (usually not networked) and approximately 300 desktop printers that were being used by staff and pupils alike. The printers especially were found to be slow, expensive and had limited functionality.
We negotiated Berkhamsted out of their current contract and provided a new transparent contract with a supplier providing an exceptional level of service. The VP of Business Operations confirmed “I expect the savings to be more than £200,000 over the life of the contract.”
£280,000 Savings made over 5 year – photocopying, telecoms, cleaning services & waste management.
Berkhamsted School has worked with the Cost Reduction Company on a range of projects including cleaning services, photocopying, telecoms and waste management. Their advice and industry expertise has helped us in many ways – to reduce cost, to become more efficient, to introduce green initiatives and sometimes to get independent confirmation that we are already conforming to best practice. We have found their approach to be flexible and tailored to the project so that it best suits our needs, and their help to be pro-active and value added, whether or not in the end we have switched suppliers.
Vice Principal – Business Ops Berkhamsted School
Savings through innovation.
We immediately conducted a bill validation exercise which resulted in a substantial financial saving for St Edmunds and this success has ultimately paved the foundations for new projects to be engaged.
£29,000 Savings made – Oil & tax rebates
“Utility contracts are often considered as fixed but charging errors can often be made and not detected, it is important to verify what has and is being paid, CRC helped us sort the issues we had and worked with the suppliers to identify the overpayments.”
St Edmund School representative
The on-going relationship has meant we have looked at various sustainable opportunities.
We started by renegotiating their Electricity and saved the college £120,000 per year on a two-year contract. Moving on to Oil where there were issues of delivery, and a clear specification was drawn up by CRC to ensure their delivery standards were met and we managed to save them £20,000 per annum. The usage of Water was high at the college and after long investigations we managed to locate several tariff and physical issues and saved over £40,000 per annum. This included looking at flow rates in the domestic accommodation and recommending new technologies to achieve a reduction in water usage.
£500,000 Savings made Electricity, LPG & water
