Individuals taking electrical courses could help businesses to manage their energy more efficiently.

Paul Edwards, chair of the British Council for Offices' Environmental Sustainability Group and head of sustainability at Hammerson, said firms could make considerable savings simply by educating their staff more effectively about their behaviour.

Indeed, he argued that most offices should have little to no energy use at night, but this is often not the case, as firms leave lights on and other equipment running that uses valuable energy.

Mr Edwards commented: "Get people to turn off the lights, turn off their computers, turn off printers at night, turn off machinery and equipment that doesn't have to run. There are lots of things that you can do that are fairly simple."

Meanwhile, Brian Berry, director of external affairs at the Federation of Master Builders, recently argued that individuals who have completed electrical courses could act to fill a growing skills gap in the retrofit sector.

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