This Guide is brought to you as part of Going Green and
Switch It Green’s Guide to Green Banking.

 Switching your energy provider

Our energy service is run through the Big Clean Switch. They develop solutions for homes and businesses to help accelerate the transition to green energy by helping you switch your energy provider. They’re also a B Corp, one of a growing group of companies committed to making a positive impact on the world around us. As they put it:

Urgent action is needed to switch the world to low carbon power, and yet our energy system is broken: tied to fossil fuels, needlessly complex, and overpriced for those who can least afford it. We want to change that. Nothing should stand in the way of people making clean energy choices. Our mission is to switch every home and business in the UK to clean energy.

If you own a business, the Big Clean Switch can help in terms of both energy procurement and employee energy support. They don’t offer energy provider switching services for households right now – but keep your eyes peeled for when this service is resumed in the future.

Energy procurement
There are many reasons you might choose to switch to an ethical energy provider for your business. We can help with energy procurement, selecting the best energy provider for your business. Here are a round-up of the top three reasons to change energy provider:

1. Engaging your customers
   88% of consumers want businesses to help them be more sustainable, and 73% of millennials are willing to try a product that supports causes they care about. Switching your energy supplier can be the signal that your customers are looking for, to believe your environmental credentials and remain loyal to your brand.
2. Green energy is cheap
   We’ll hunt through the UK’s most reputable green suppliers to get you a great deal (green tariffs are now some of the most competitive on the market).
3. Help save the planet
   Finally, there’s climate change. Faced with everything from commodity price volatility to flood risk, cutting emissions just makes business sense.

Employee energy support
Home energy bills are rising. By spring 2023, half of UK households could be in fuel poverty. Employers can play a big role in helping their staff to cope.

Employees want help.
54% of UK workers say employers should be providing employees working from home with financial support to help with the cost of energy. ^[1] 31% of workers say that employers should be providing employees working from home with advice on the best ways to reduce energy costs, while 30% of workers say that employers should be providing employees working from home with financial support for improvements to their home that will lower energy costs.

It can be hard to know what to do. But don’t panic – the Big Clean Switch is on hand to help your employees cut costs and reduce their carbon emissions. Try one of the following ways:

1. Inform
   Help your employees navigate record energy prices and make informed choices with webinars and eLearns.

2. Save
   Provide your people with the equipment they need to reduce energy use while working from home. Help them switch to cheaper, greener tariffs, or provide additional discounts on their energy bills.

3. Improve and protect
   Help your staff to improve the efficiency of their home and future-proof it from the effects of climate change.

For more information, email the Big Clean Switch and ask about their employee support services, at: help@bigcleanswitch.org

^[1]Nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK respondents.
Survey commissioned from FindOutNow in August 2022 by Big Clean Switch

Thank you to our partner Switch It Green for their contribution to this guide to switching your energy provider.