KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's biggest health board plans to slash its energy use, saving power, reducing emissions and freeing up more than $160,000 each year.
The Waitemata District Health Board will begin its efficiency campaign on Monday.
Despite a budget of just $20,000, the campaign is picked to annually save the energy used by 153 homes in a year, and the yearly carbon emissions of 277 cars.
The campaign follows the distribution of stickers, posters and information packs to staff since April.
It will encourage them to adopt simple, easy changes to their daily routines, including turning off computer monitors when leaving work, half-flushing toilets when appropriate and switching lights off when leaving a room empty.
A number of upgrades to lights and sensors have also been made, at a cost of $5200 - a figure expected to be recouped by energy savings within three years.
It is predicted the scheme will save 1,533,147 kilowatt hours of electricity in the first year alone, about 10 million litres of water and 4150 gigajoules of gas.
This will reduce the Waitemata board's carbon dioxide emissions by 907 tonnes a year.
In dollar terms, the savings are expected to free up $163,620 each year - a 4 per cent saving on annual costs based on the board's 2007 energy bill.
Chief executive Dave Davies said the saved money would be spent on improvements to the board's "ageing energy infrastructure, and also enable us to incorporate the latest advancements in green technology to our future building programmes".
Last year, the board spent $3.87 million on energy, used 170 million litres of water and generated almost 7000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The board is the country's largest.
The efficiency scheme has come in response to the Government's climate change policy requiring big energy users to look at where they consume energy and how to make positive changes.
