Why are businesses struggling to change sustainability ambitions into actions?
A survey involving over 9,000 businesses of all sizes and sectors found 96% are wanting to improve their environmental and social practices; however, this is becoming increasingly challenging due to minimal resources and budget.
HSBC spoke to 9,131 of the largest businesses across 35 different markets and asked what actions they are currently taking, and what they plan to do going forward.
Key challenge
Of all the businesses whose opinions were canvassed, 96% wanted to make more resourceful and ambitious choices in the future but found they were being held back by at least one key challenge.
Over a quarter of the surveyed respondents are said to be confused about what to prioritise due to the large volume of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) measurement criteria available, and what best practice looks like for a business of their size.
According to a report from the World Business Council For Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the number of voluntary ESG requirements has increased from 10 to 182 in the last decade, with up to 80% being non-governmental organisations.
Need help?
Is this your business? Are you struggling to reduce your business’s carbon footprint with little budget and resources? Then get in touch with our highly-skilled engineering team who will be happy to help.
Whether it’s energy efficiencysurveying, understanding legislation and requirements, utility management, SECR or EV, EPC, DEC and TM44, we have it covered.
Contact one of the sales team on the information below:
Energy efficiency may not be your bread and butter if you’re in the food and drink industry, and why should it be?
But spiralling energy costs brought about by a range of geopolitical factors in 2019 make it a topic that is never far from the top of the agenda.
As the fourth highest industrial energy user in the UK, according to a report by the Carbon Trust, businesses in the food and drink industry are increasingly recognising the need to lower their energy bills, hedge against future volatility and adopt measures that help them comply with green energy legislation.
Non-energy costs
With analyst forecasts suggesting that Decarbonisation and other government social policies will account for the majority share of energy bills in the near future, compliance and energy efficiency will soon be of equal importance to procurement. The phrase ‘the cheapest unit of energy is the one you never use’ is well-liked at Energy Management, and for good reason.
For many organisations, time poverty means that managing the work required to reduce their energy consumption is an undesirable distraction from their core business activities.
To further compound this, there may also be a lack of energy expertise and distinct skills gap creating barriers to finding savings and implementing reduction initiatives. This is where an expert reputable energy management consultancy can step in to remove these barriers and ease the way forward to effective reductions.
No compromise needed
Energy efficiency may mean different things to many of us, for Energy Management LLP it means reducing energy consumption without compromising business throughput, output or thermal comfort and wellbeing of staff.
Energy drivers can be defined under one of the three core areas responsible for consumption: People, Process or Technology.
People– Human influences
Process– Policies, procedures, protocols and regimes
Technology– Energy consuming plant, machinery and equipment and their associated controls.
Energy Management has the expertise to identify, qualify and quantify the opportunities in all three core areas
Invoice validation is also an area which can help reduce costs; did you know that one in five utility bills are wrong?
Discrepancies can occur on energy invoices, as they can on any type of bill, and, more often than not, such errors go unnoticed or unchallenged. Just like a customer of a restaurant wouldn’t leave without checking the bill was correct the same applies to your energy bill, this is when professional invoice validation can prove helpful, with the potential of saving you hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds.
Procurement of Energyis also an important factor to help you reduce your costs when choosing a supplier.
Simply by following “The five Rs”
Right price
Right time
Right contract type
Right terms and conditions
Right contract duration
Out-sourcing your energy management may seem like a big step but, with energy costs higher now than they have been for the past two years, we believe understanding and controlling these costs are vital to your business’s future success.
Visible consumption
To continue making energy savings, businesses need to have clear visibility of their energy consumption across the whole asset base thus leading to the ability to act. Bespoke energy management portals such as Energy Management’s EM-Powered allow this to happen, whether your business operates on one site or across multiple locations.
As the name suggests, the portal empowers energy managers to compile an instant overview of their organisation’s actual energy consumption, predicted energy consumption and peak loads in an easily downloadable report.
On gaining a complete understanding of your business’s energy performance, informed decisions can then be made on energy efficiency measures.
Worth the energy
So, whilst energy efficiency might not be your bread and butter there are many things as a business you can do towards following a path of becoming more in control of your energy usage and being more efficient. With such a wide array of benefits on offer, beginning even a small review of your business is anything but a waste of energy.
Energy procurement is the process in which a business looks for the most favourable energy contracts that enable them to meet their needs.
An energy procurement manager has in-depth knowledge of the industry and spends several hours studying the market on a daily basis to identify price trends and future availability of different types of energy.
Their role also consists of locating vendors, negotiating prices with suppliers, preparing and managing tenders, maintaining customer relationships and managing records.
Monitoring and reporting
Our team continually monitor and report on excess capacity, reactive power charges, kWh fluctuations, VAT issues and mid-contract changes to legislation on behalf of our clients.
On top of this, we produce a Market Intelligence report, monthly insight into all the energy market trends, whilst our bespoke portal, EM-Powered, is another invaluable tool.
This has an in-built early warning system which allows us to protect customers from breaching their contracted and excess capacity levels, thus avoiding financial penalties.
Change of tenancy/expansion
By changing premises or increasing the energy supply to your existing site, due to business growth, can often be complicated and require a large amount of paperwork.
Energy Management deals with all aspects of the network in an efficient manner in order to find out the timescale involved and the best solution for your business.
Here at Energy Management, we pride ourselves on our capability to manage situations in the best way possible for our client to ensure you are not caught out by a change in circumstances.
Budget management
With over 200 years of combined expertise in the energy industry, our team is highly skilled at providing in-depth analysis of a company’s current and predicted energy usage, supply costs and existing or pending government energy efficiency “taxation” schemes.
Invoice validation
Customers often pay over 5% more than they should for their energy through undiscovered errors on their energy bill. Our invoice checking system is very thorough and shines a light on errors, whether this is down to inaccurate meter readings, wrongly applied correction and volume factors or CCL and VAT charges.
We regularly publish articles and market news on the procuring of business energy and, as energy consultants, we offer our clients market-leading insights.
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