Energy Cost Savings Lead to Environmental Gains
Every existing organization these days will find difficulty making any profit without depending on an energy element for day to day operations. This would have implications for companies needing to find a way to save on energy costs to maximize profit potential.The decision makers in business organizations of today already know that energy security will be very crucial for an organization’s forward planning. As energy and utility costs, to a certain extent, are a “necessary evil,” energy cost savings must be pursued by the company at every opportunity.Unless energy is used, business organizations of today will find a hard time to earn any profit. This total reliance on energy reflects strongly on the balance sheet and corporate utility bills are the subject of much attention, with frugality in mind.Energy cost savings form part of a solution to the problem of corporate sustainability. Any energy management strategy needs to reflect the unpredictability of this entire energy situation. We have seen spikes in the cost of oil and other fossil fuels and know only too well that these sources are finite. Attempts to explore the viability of alternative energy solutions are laudable and progressive, but represent less than one tenth of potential capacity.The cost of energy is outpacing inflation and we have seen the cost of raw power increase over 110% in the last 10 years with an increasing and accelerating trend. Management teams have been charged with the responsibility of implementing energy cost savings, as and where possible. Each and every employee within the enterprise is told that it is his or her responsibility to make sure that wastage is kept to an absolute minimum.Energy liability actually has two defined sides. To begin with, it can involve energy security from the supply chain and its consequent costs, followed by the implementation of energy efficient programs. Both factors reflect the organization’s environmental stewardship, partly due to a wish to become far more efficient from a security and cost perspective, but also from a wish to be seen as environmentally progressive.Established companies have to look at energy from a historical perspective, even as they make plans for significant changes going forward. Starting any plan for the future from scratch could be more effective in realizing efficient energy cost savings. An example can be taken from the construction industry, whereby energy-saving techniques can be used like ‘green building’ and using renewable sources of energy.Historically, it is often rather difficult to replace complete systems within any organization to take advantage of energy cost-saving programs. In these cases, retrofitting is a much more palatable option. In any case, the “status quo” is not acceptable and organizations may not simply turn their back on a problem as an increasingly agitated public requires us all to address the issue of sustainability quickly.For organizations looking to capture energy cost savings at point of use, smart devices are available to help explore energy metering in real-time. Such smart devices can be configured to be able to allocate energy based on ‘best practices’ on energy use and digitization of utility bills to allow a more precise energy accounting.