For most business owners, energy is seen as a fixed cost. It’s often undermanaged—but with energy benchmarking tools, that’s about to change.
For most companies, energy represents one of their top three operating expenses. However, even though it’s such a prominent expense, most companies don’t do anything more than tracking and comparing historical utility bills.
Energy benchmarking allows organizations to minimize risk, adapt for new regulations, and improve profitability—the Fortune 100 is taking notice.
A recent report from Ceres found 60% of the Fortune 100 have formal goals for better energy benchmarking, but only 5% track performance. Some—like Pepsi, Ford, UTC and Walmart—are extending energy, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and cost reduction goals to suppliers.
In order to properly manage energy benchmarking for your organization, you will need energy analytics software (EAS). You will gain visibility into several aspects of your organization’s energy performance, such as, sustainability performance, attainable investment opportunities, operational improvement opportunities and real time energy savings opportunities. Below are three reasons adopting an EAS platform will not only mitigate energy costs, but will prepare you for regulation changes and position your organization for growth.
Greater Insight
EAS collects and analyzes real-time and historical energy data for organizations. This provides companies with granular visibility into their energy use along with an awareness to make changes faster, manage energy use and meet sustainability goals.
According to the US EPA, commercial and industrial enterprises represent more than 50% of US energy consumption. 30% of that energy is wasted each year—a whopping $118 billion in profit.
New legislation is trying to mitigate this—it will force buildings to report energy consumption and benchmark themselves against similar buildings. With real-time energy data, you can ensure that your organization is ahead of the curve, and be prepared to make changes when needed.
Not only will real-time data keep you on the offense, but it will provide insight into what is going on behind the energy meter, giving you a much deeper understanding of how, when, and at what cost your company uses energy.
Expect to gain the following with real-time analytics:
- An understanding of your utility bill to identify whether you should be paying less
- Understanding of the cost savings associated with moving to a 3rd party energy supply vendor
- Ability to determine if your company qualifies for tax exemptions or credits
- Ability to spot billing errors, which occur more frequently than most expect
But that’s just the surface—in real-time, demand peaks and anomalies will become visible and you will gain the ability to visualize how different loads and business process affect your costs. By setting up alert thresholds, your EAS will notify you of times where preventative action may be required, such as periods of extreme weather.
You’ll Reach Your Sustainability Goals
Sustainability is big topic for CEOs in the coming years, who are striving to keep up with new regulations and reduce their energy costs.
In a recent McKinsey study, 36% of CEOs cite sustainability as a top three corporate priority. Another 13% rank sustainability as their number one priority, more than twice the number recorded two years earlier.
Not only does it free up resources for growth, but sustainability practices improve corporate reputation and improve your brand’s credibility with customers and prospects.
Forward thinking CEOs need to keep up with sustainability practices as they prepare to market their services to younger generations.
The same McKinsey study reported that among respondents under the age of 34, nearly three-quarters said they would pay more for products and services from companies that take sustainability seriously.
Sustainability isn’t just a topic being forced by your customers—it’s a topic that’s been prevalent in legislation, and is going to become a necessary adaptation for companies across the globe.
Be Prepared For Upcoming Legislation Changes
Regardless of how you personally feel about climate change, you can know one thing for certain—more climate change legislation that will directly affect you is on its way. This is just one of the reasons it’s top of mind for many CEOs and has become essential.
According to Deloitte’s 2015 Resources study, “thoughtful, deliberate energy consumption has permeated the business psyche, and companies, by and large, now consider energy management to be an essential aspect of corporate strategy”.
At the Paris Climate Conference in late 2015, over 190 countries agrees to limit global temperature increase by two degrees Celsius. This legislation is going to come nationally and locally, and with all sorts of different nomenclature.
A good EAS platform can help you manage your energy output as legislation is passed, and keep you ready to stay compliant with energy regulations.
Energy Star Portfolio Manager Can Help
Energy benchmarking will require an interactive management tool to track and assess your energy consumption. Energy Star Portfolio enables tracking and assessment of energy and water use across your entire portfolio of buildings, in a secure environment.
It’s not just a management tool—it helps you determine the relative energy efficiency of your portfolio against like buildings. With this information, companies can identify which of their buildings are underperforming and prioritize where energy efficiency projects should be explored first.
Once these changes are in place, you’ll be able to measure your carbon footprint by tracking GHG emissions, set investment priorities with access to facility upgrades and energy costs data, track your savings, and report your performance if you choose.
The bottom line—the adoption of energy benchmarking is accelerating for businesses of all sizes. Start energy benchmarking today for to gain additional visibility into your energy and sustainability performance and to prepare for inevitable legislation and regulation changes.
Request a complimentary energy efficiency assessment to find out how Artis Energy’s RTIS® energy analytics platform can provide you with the visibility and insight to transform energy from a fixed cost into a distinct competitive advantage.
Request a complimentary energy efficiency assessment to find out how Artis Energy’s RTIS® energy analytics platform can provide you with the visibility and insight to transform energy from a fixed cost into a distinct competitive advantage.