With energy prices remaining high and the average business in the UK wasting up to 30% of the energy they purchase, now is the time to focus on identifying and eliminating energy waste.
When energy prices were low, energy waste was not something many organisations focused on. However, the last two years have seen unprecedented rises in energy costs, leading to the topic being one regularly discussed at board room level.
Through our work in the public and private sectors, we know that on average 30% of the energy purchased by organisations is wasted. That is why we have put together these five tips to help your business identify and eliminate energy waste.
The ability to understand your organsiation’s energy consumption at a granular level is vital to identifying where energy is being wasted. Most businesses will know how much energy they are using every day, but they don’t know how that energy is being consumed. Is it helping the business grow or is it simply burning cash?
Investing in an energy measurement solution will give you a greater understanding of when, where, and how your organisation is consuming energy. Our solution, MY ZeERO, provides data at a granular level, so you can see exactly when and how assets across your business are consuming energy.
Energy consumption data is meaningless unless you analyse it and identify where energy waste is happening. We are used to looking around our homes and spotting energy waste, but in the workplace, it is not as easy. Granular level data gives you a much deeper understanding of the consumption patterns of your organisation. For example, you will be able to see how much energy is being used at any given time of the day, this could lead to identifying machinery being left on after hours. Without analysing the data you won’t be able to unlock to opportunities to eliminate energy waste and save your organisation money.
The quickest, cheapest way to start eliminating energy waste is to engage with employees on the subject and encourage behaviour change. We find that the clients who have the greatest level of success are the ones that provide data-backed examples to their teams. Being able to highlight to your team where energy waste is happening and the financial impact of this waste on the business is a powerful way to communicate the message.
One of the best examples we have witnessed is a manufacturing client who shared their energy waste insights with their operations team and incentivised them to half it in 12 months through simple behaviour changes. The ops team embraced the challenge and delivered a significant reduction in energy waste, well above the 50% target.
Once you have implemented behaviour changes throughout the business, it is now time to identify and install energy efficiency solutions that will further eliminate energy waste. Replacing machinery with newer, more energy-efficient equipment or installing solutions such as LED lighting can have a dramatic effect on energy consumption. One organisation we work with installed new LED lighting and was able to reduce their energy costs by £470,000 over 10 years.
Every business is different, so the solutions that work will differ. What doesn’t change is that any business that isn’t using granular-level data won’t be making an informed decision. Investing in any energy efficiency solution will come at a cost, being able to show the potential savings using device-level data will only strengthen the business case.
The final tip is a combination of the first four. Identifying and eliminating energy waste is a continuous process. Unless you remain vigilant, it is easy for employees to slip back into bad habits, for machinery to become inefficient, and for new opportunities to implement energy efficiency solutions to be missed. Ironically the more energy you put into identifying and eliminating energy waste, the more energy you will save.
We are on a mission to eliminate energy waste, which is why we offer our MY ZeERO solution without the need for upfront investment. You can access granular level data via a simple subscription model, which can be scaled as your business grows.
To find out more about MY ZeERO why not book a demo today? You can call our team on 020 3813 1550 or use the button below to contact us
