Climate case studies

Insulating our branches

We recently surveyed a sample of 100 Lloyds Banking Group branches to establish if they had adequate loft and water pipe insulation. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that if everyone in the UK installed adequate loft insulation we would save nearly 3 million tonnes of CO₂ a year, the equivalent of taking nearly 1 million cars off the road. We found that 75% of the branches surveyed had insufficient or no insulation.

A project is now under way to increase insulation in up to 1,000 Group branches this year. Initial estimates (based on Energy Saving Trust data) indicate that we could achieve energy savings of up to 10%, and an overall reduction in our carbon emissions of 1,600 tonnes. Insulating our water pipes will also save us money on repairs. Last winter, 211 pipes burst in our properties. Each one cost between £2,000 and £5,000 to fix, including all of the associated remedial work.

Reducing the carbon footprint of our IT systems

As a large financial services company, our datacentres and IT infrastructure have a significant carbon footprint. In order to address this we have launched a CO₂ reduction plan which lays out clear targets for a reduction in the energy consumption of our IT systems over the next 5 years.

We have already made good progress since the beginning of 2009. In our Peterborough data centre we undertook a project to identify and remove 1,200 redundant computers, which will result in a reduction of over 6,500 tonnes of CO₂ every year. We have also reduced the number of computers needed in our West Yorkshire data centres by consolidating systems and decommissioning old equipment. This will save a further 2,500 tonnes of CO₂ annually. Projects planned for 2010 will deliver further carbon savings of at least 6,000 tonnes a year. Minimising our energy consumption will also reduce our costs – so there are clear incentives to deliver savings on both fronts.