Go Green - Case Study - Cafe Nili

GOING GREEN STOPS CAFE NILI'S MONEY GOING DOWN THE DRAIN

As a direct result of signing up to the Go Green service from southlondon.biz, café owner Igor Arpadzic has stopped £300 per year from, quite literally, going down the drain by reducing his annual water bill.

“My business had only been running a matter of months,” said Igor, “and I hadn’t really had time to think much about how to go green as yet.” An unexpected visit from Bill Walter, the Greening Business Officer for Merton and Sutton, introduced Igor to the Go Green service which is funded by the London Development Agency. “The fact that someone was willing to look at my spending and minimise my costs sounded of great value to me.” Bill quickly identified that Café Nili, a coffee shop in Rosehill, was paying too much for their water, and set about contacting the Water board and arranging for a meter to be put into the premises. “The meter was free to install and even though it carries a monthly charge, it still works out that I am now saving over £300 per year against what I was previously paying.” said Igor. “Keeping costs down is important for any business of course, but for a new business it is absolutely vital.”

Café Nili can also reduce their water usage, and thereby further reduce their costs, by adopting some of the other recommendations contained in the Action Plan that Bill provided as part of the Go Green Service. “We’re also looking into fitting push taps in the washrooms, ‘hippos’ in the cisterns and educating the staff to adopt water saving practices – simple things like making sure taps are turned off fully every time or running the tap with a slower flow than you might normally use.”

The assessment carried out by the Greening Business Officer covers all areas of the business to move towards a greener way of operating, such as energy, waste, transport, packaging and, of course, water. Igor had this to say about the service he received: “The service is really convenient and very easy to use because he came to us – not only that, but Bill always turned up on time, he was really professional and whatever he said he would do, he did! I would strongly recommend this service to any business.”

Café Nili were already using some energy efficient lights and a timer to turn their drinks fridge off at night, but another recommendation is that the other 26 spotlights in use in the Café be changed to energy efficient ones. Plans are also gathering speed to join a consortium of local shops and apply jointly for a grant through the Go Green service for a baler which will help them to bale their collective cardboard waste for collection by recyclers. “This is a great initiative being led by another local business who is also a Go Green client of Bill’s.“ added Igor. “Café Nili doesn’t produce enough cardboard waste to warrant the cost of the baler, whereas as a group we certainly do.”

Igor will continue to monitor the Café’s usage of energy and water and will also be looking at ‘green’ suppliers to integrate recycled products and practices into every working day.

The Go Green service is available to businesses in the five London boroughs of Merton, Kingston, Sutton, Croydon and Wandsworth, focusing on businesses that have not sought support from publicly funded business agencies in the past. Businesses like Café Nili can apply for small grants to help them implement appropriate solutions.