Docklands light show is wasteful

Driving from the City in London past the Docklands last night, I was struck by quite how many offices had their lights on. What’s so unusual about that? It’s the Docklands, the heart beat of the UK’s finance empire. Expect it wasn’t, well not last night anyway.

You see, last night there was a Tube strike on. The City was a ghost land at about 4pm, with workers using the impending strike action as an opportunity to go home early, or not actually come in. The Docklands was unlikely to have had a different philosophy.

Many of the businesses in the Docklands also have offices in the City. And when you looked up from the road running round the Docklands, you could see the offices were – for the most part – empty. So, why were the lights on?

A few offices seemed to break the rule but, in general, the complex looked like an attractive and very expensive light show. It’s as if the whole carbon emissions thing had never happened. IT, which by some estimates accounts for 2% of global emissions and its good service pal facilities management, clearly has a lot to answer for. Even now, the message about unnecessary waste clearly isn’t getting through.

And is that really acceptable? If no-one’s in the offices, why are the lights on? Do the same workers that leave their office lights on also leave all the lights on in their own home? Which executive isn’t hammering the sustainability message and should it be the CIO’s responsibility?

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