THE Switch It Off campaign, which we are featuring in a series of special articles all this week, is not about preaching a green message.

Of course there is an environmental impact in turning off lights left on unnecessarily and not leaving items like televisions and DVD players on standby.

But this newspaper has given its backing to Worcestershire County Council’s initiative because it will help save our readers money.

Everyone needs a little help in these times of economic gloom and doom. All this week we’ll be giving you a series of tips and hints to help you keep more cash in your pockets.

Energy bills continue to soar and even though the information we will be publishing this week is hardly rocket science it reminds us all of the type of simple tasks we often just do not think about carrying out.

It is estimated the average family can knock up to 45 per cent off their energy bills just by switching off lights when they leave a room, changing to low energy light bulbs, and not leaving electrical items on standby. That’s a huge saving for very little effort.

We will also be following the Bate family from Worcester this week as they put the theory of saving energy into practice – and finding out how much better off they are by the end of the week.

Switch It Off is a campaign we are happy to support. It is good news for the environment – and good news for everyone’s pockets.