If you’ve driven past our head office in Hintlesham recently, you may have noticed the addition of our brand-new set of solar panels on our office roof. This is something that we’ve been wanting to do ever since we relocated last year.
The solar installation was delivered by DPL group, who fitted us with a 32-panel, 14.08 kWp solar PV system, along with a 17-kWh battery backup to function as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to protect our servers in the event of a power cut.
Partly funded by Babergh District Council
We received £11,000 from the UK government through the Rural England Prosperity Fund via Babergh District Council.
This fund is a capital grants scheme with the aim of helping improve productivity and strengthen the rural economy and rural communities. The funding, which ultimately comes from the UK government, is targeted towards “projects such as net-zero developments, agriculture and farm diversification, visitor economy business expansion as well as SME investment and diversification.”
Our Managing Director, Craig Debenham, says, “The funding provision from Babergh District Council made it possible, and we can’t thank them enough for their support. The process from application to installation was seamless, and we’ve already seen a significant generation of solar power within just a few days.
“I’d highly recommend other businesses check to see if they are also eligible for future funding. The more we can all play a part in reducing our carbon emissions, the easier it will be to protect Suffolk from the effects of climate change.”
Why is renewable energy so important to us?
We take our reputation as Ipswich’s leading IT support company very seriously.
In our opinion, our role isn’t just to facilitate exceptional digital installations for local businesses. We want to become an example of responsible business practices for other local companies.
We are actively supporting Suffolk’s long-term goal of becoming the Greenest County, and we also want to demonstrate how the IT industry, in particular, can invest in green solutions.
How is Lucid Systems reducing carbon emissions?
Last year, we took the first steps to improve our environmental practices. We signed up for the Carbon Charter and received our bronze accreditation. The installation of our solar panels and solar battery will go a long way towards helping us step up to silver certification.
Before we took the plunge, we took advice from Richard Jenner – Sustainability Consultant for Groundwork East. Their sustainable business team offers some fantastic help and advice for any business looking to make environmentally-friendly improvements, and we would highly recommend them to anyone else searching for ways to improve their business.
Richard says, “The installation of the solar panels and the battery backup shows that Lucid Systems is making significant progress in their efforts to reduce energy and emissions. What we have been most impressed with is that Lucid is showing clear leadership from an IT company about how to tackle server emissions – it’s a growing issue that more companies need to be aware of.”
“To have a firm like Lucid demonstrate the importance of tackling tech-specific emissions is hugely important – as we hope that other companies can learn from this and apply it to reduce their own emissions.”
Why does the IT sector have a poor reputation when it comes to carbon emissions?
There is no doubt that new technologies have hugely improved environmental targets.
Commuting emissions have lowered as remote working has become mainstream. Printed documents are less likely to be needed when switching to digital-first communications, and there are considerable advantages to working with new devices that require less energy to run.
But we can’t ignore the impact that it is having elsewhere.
As part of our commitment to cloud computing, we run our Suffolk data centre from our Hintlesham headquarters, and the solar installation means that we are taking every step possible to make it as energy-efficient as possible.
We view our environmental impact as a continuous journey rather than a destination. There will always be something more that we can do to improve, and we will continue to reduce our emissions.
That’s why we promise to
- Prioritise equipment updates over replacements, extending product lifecycles.
- Actively recycle hardware to minimise electronic waste in line with the WEEE Directive.
- Continuously monitor the efficiency of our data centre and take steps to utilise environmentally friendly power sources and renewable energy tariffs.
- Minimise vehicle mileage by completing work remotely whenever possible.
- Commitment to move fleet to EV and PHEV.
The addition of our solar panels is just the start of our ongoing plans to improve our environmental credentials, and we hope that other businesses in Suffolk follow our lead.
