Paul Wells, CEO of IM&M, discusses how changing your energy consumption as part of your Intelligent Building Strategy can have a huge impact on both cost and energy usage
Irrespective of the industry, we all use energy to either heat, cool, light or run the spaces that we occupy, and it all has a carbon impact. The Carbon Trust recently reported, “experience shows that even low and no-cost actions can usually reduce energy costs by as much as 10%.
For many businesses, a 20% cut in energy costs represents the same bottom line benefit as a 5% increase in sales,” but as you can see from Figure 1.2 there is still more to be done.
So, what can we do? Well, here at IM&M we provide solutions that allow you to monitor and manage your energy so that you can make informed decisions to reduce your costs. We work with partners who, like us, actually believe it is not just about reducing costs, it is also about saving the environment and making a difference.
The Utility Center of Excellence (TUCOE) is one such partner who share our vision of a cleaner future. TUCOE work with businesses of all sizes to help make the switch to renewable green energy. If you look around, the words ‘green’ and ‘renewable’ are being thrown around with reckless abandonment but very few sources actually embrace it beyond using it to spear head marketing.
Change can be made but not all have access to the information needed to make an informed decision – and that’s where TUCOE help businesses to know the facts, helping them cut through the vast amount of jargon to understand the reality of what their options are and what they mean.
Yet as a society we are still continually looking for the cheapest option under the often-naive assumption that this reduces costs. Irrespective of the type or size of the company you need to think about the impact your organisation has on the environment and make astute decisions to improve.
So, what is the quickest way to start your carbon neutral strategy? Switch to a renewable energy provider that guarantees that they only use energy provided from renewable sources. What is often overlooked is the fact that being environmentally friendly can actually reduce costs if it is implemented correctly, TUCOE provides services to get you the right energy for your organisation and IM&M shows you what, where and how, so that you can manage and develop a continual improvement programme that delivers, not only in terms of reduced costs but also on your environmental commitment.
So, how do we do this?
The Carbon Trusts sets out a 5-step plan to help:
Step one: Commitment; raising awareness and understanding at a senior level and getting everyone to buy into why this is important and continuing to look for ways to improve. Without this, anything you do is unlikely to succeed. Everyone needs to get behind the initiatives, and it needs to be sponsored from the top down and embraced from the bottom up.
Step two: Understand; you need visibility and control. Without this you cannot see your successes or where you can improve.
Step three: Plan and organise. We always recommend not trying to do everything in one go. It almost always fails to deliver and costs far more than expected. Do the quick wins but break everything else down into projects that are planned and achievable. Ensure that everyone in the organisation knows what you are doing and why, so that everyone is engaged.
Step four: Act; sometimes it is as simple as putting a sign on the door saying, “last person to leave turn off the lights”, but then plan to automate the process so that it happens automatically.
Step five: Control, monitor and review; keep making small, measured improvements and make this a continual process. Do not sit back and think that since you have made some improvements, the job is done. Constantly review, refine, and look at ways to improve. Only by everyone adopting this approach do we stand any chance of making any real progress towards reducing our environmental impact.
Figure 2.2 clearly shows there is no better time to move to renewable, sustainable, and local power. TUCOE will show you how and IM&M will help you to manage and control your energy requirements allowing you to be carbon neutral and environmentally friendly today.
We all want to run efficient and environmentally friendly buildings and understanding where you are is the first step in the journey. IM&M and TUCOE are there to guide you through every step.
For more information on how we help you achieve your targets contact us: IM&M http://www.immsuite.com/government/ or TUCOE http://www.tucoe.co.uk/government/
Please note: This is a commercial profile
