After summer comes winter. Logic you tell me. As you know, we had a (very) hot summer, and to go to the other extreme we will surely have a fairly cold winter. The only small problem is that in terms of energy, we are not at the top! On the one hand, there is a (tuuut) little problem with Russia which gives us a lot of gas. And this energy that we consume in winter is really not good for our planet.
So that raises a few questions. Will we be able to get through the winter without major energy cuts? How to limit price increases? What are the things to avoid for a more sustainable future?
Heat, but at what cost?
We know it, well we have seen it above all, in one year the prices of gas have multiplied by 5 or 6 and those of electricity have reached record levels. The cause: our great dependence on Russian gas. On this aspect, the European Union is working hard and has gone from 50% to 9% of gas coming from Russia . Well done! But who says gas coming from the EU, says reopening of coal-fired power stations and opening of new gas terminals. And that, we are a little less fans.
Make an effort and wear down jackets
The famous down jacket that Elisabeth Borne, our Prime Minister, wears at Matignon, would never have become so coveted without the call from the State to make a “collective effort”.
But what does the government mean by that? On October 6, the energy sobriety plan intended to prepare for a difficult winter was unveiled. The latter gives us some measures to allow us to spend a winter without major cuts, and at the same time spare the ecosystem a little.
Heat who can!
The government is working on several levers for the winter under good conditions. The first lever is gas storage. Well, everyone thinks what they want about this. But the second lever addressed by the government is... Sobriety! Well, it wasn't too early.
Our president ensures that France could succeed in saving 10% of its energy consumption if everyone does their part. He even turned into a great philosopher by assuring that: “The best energy is that which we do not consume”. Isn't it Aristotle? Although this sentence was pronounced because of the fear of having no more gas or electricity (we say thank you Russia), the goal is the same as what we are committed to: consume less, consume responsibly.
So a little advice given to us is not to heat our beautiful homes to more than 19 degrees. If you are cold, do like Elisabeth, take out your down jacket!
As for businesses, restaurants, hotels, shops... the temperature will also be reduced to 19 degrees or even 17 degrees in the event of voltage on the electrical network. So right now at Oé we are writing to you with mmmfqzrouuufflzses. Sorry. I withdraw them. I said: we write to you with mittens.
And in order not to waste more energy than necessary, the signs will have to turn off their signs between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.
TV - Work - Sleep?
The state strongly recommends telework, not at all because of the covid, but rather for energy reasons. The aim is to limit travel and reduce heating in buildings, especially during “bridges”. Wouldn't we just move the concern for heating from the company to the home? That's another debate. To encourage this measure, the Ministry of the Public Service is increasing the telework allowance from €2.5 to €2.88 per day. Of course, the government would like companies to do the same.
Vrrrrrouuuum… barely time to see the car, and Lewis Hamilton has already passed. And fortunately he is not a civil servant. Otherwise it would have been limited to … 110 km/h. A little complicated to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, isn't it?
Yup, as you guessed, civil servants are on the front line to change habits. To reduce CO2 emissions, they will have to lower their speed from 130 to 110 km/h. For individuals no obligation is made. But the government is working on a way to encourage carpooling. That's why these clever little guys have found the perfect way to reach as many people as possible: soon, each person who registers on a covoit' platform will receive a bonus of 100 euros. Rather nice for, in addition, to relieve the planet. Just like during the covid, with his famous phrase “ We are at war ”, Emmanuel Macron chose the phrase “ Each gesture counts ” to remind the French not to consume too much. It would be nice to put as much ardor into supporting climate actions as the actions put in place for covid. On good terms!
Every gesture counts, really.
You see, we have already put this marketing slogan in the subtitle, it works (we promise we won't get any interest from the government…). Brief. As every gesture counts, we invite you to talk to you about a subject that affects every company: paper.
And yes, we print, we write, we make erasures, we throw it away, we crumple it… Office paper and cardboard are the waste most produced by companies and only 20% of them are recycled . So we may repeat and repeat that we have to sort our waste, not everyone does it. An impressive statistic is that an employee throws away about 75 kg of paper per year . Reported to companies, each year, no less than 900,000 tonnes of paper waste are produced. Or the weight of 90 Eiffel towers!
Even if since 2018, offices with more than 20 employees must sort and recycle their paper, there is a long way to go before reducing (or even eliminating) all this waste.
But why recycle these papers? The main reason is… ecological. You probably suspected that. Recycling allows France to avoid the release into the atmosphere of 390,000 tonnes of CO2 per year . That's the equivalent of 200,000 cars. And on top of that we save natural resources (hello trees) and energy (hello government). Recycled paper requires up to 5 times less energy and water , whereas it takes 7 kilos of wood fiber to produce a ream of A4 paper… All that leaves us a little speechless.
That's why at Oé, we use as little paper as possible and it is recycled. All of our little cards that we send to you are made from recycled paper, just like the labels on our bottles. With a natural cork stopper from an FSC forest, a recycled paper label, water-soluble glue and a returnable bottle, we are very happy at Oé to offer you minimized, lightened, recycled and recyclable packaging. We are delighted to offer you an organic wine responsible from the content to the container!
