Embracing traditional tea drinking culture could save businesses £31.8m

Staff at small businesses drink 41.2m cups of tea a day and E.ON claims that by regularly putting on the kettle just for themselves, solo "tea-lovers" could be costing businesses an additional £31.8m a year.


According to the research from E.ON, employees drink on average three hot drinks a day and a fifth (22%) of them are wasting energy by filling the kettle even when making just one drink. 

More than a third of small business employees (35%) do not join in with communal tea rounds at work and E.ON has called on employees to embrace traditional tea round culture in order to save energy and waste.

E.ON sales and marketing director Anthony Ainsworth said: “Putting the kettle on for a round of drinks is more efficient than making a single cup of tea from a full kettle, especially if your colleagues will simply have to re-boil the water moments later.

“With over 40m hot drinks made every day in offices, shops, restaurants and factories across the UK, tea-lovers could be enjoying a more efficient brew just by getting involved in the tea round – and they may get to know their colleagues a bit better too.”

Cutting the frequency and volume of kettle-boiling is key to greater ‘tea-break efficiency’ according to E.ON, and for the two thirds of SMEs that rely on a traditional kettle (64%), switching to a more energy efficient eco-kettle would also make an impact, it claimed.

Conor McGlone

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