Nearly every piece of research or marketing around monitoring and targeting contains the phrase ‘you cannot manage what you cannot measure’. This is true in all aspects of a business and particularly so if you are trying to control or reduce your energy costs and consumption.

Monitoring your energy consumption (gas, electricity, heating oil etc) establishes a base line for your energy use over a period of time.  Knowing your energy usage pattern allows you to quickly identify increases in consumption. These increases can be examined to identify the cause, it could be unusual weather, control failures, production issues, staff behaviours, etc. Once identified remedial actions can be taken and costs reduced.

Reporting on your consumption, issues found and the remedial actions to your management team and staff confirms a cultural or value change in your organisation. Incorporating energy reduction strategies into your business processes allows staff to see where they can make a difference and will support measures to reduce costs and consumption. It may now be possible to set energy targets for your business, knowing that in achieving these targets you will be reducing costs and improving the bottom line.

Marketing your business as an energy conscious organisation and showing reports of your actions in reducing energy demand and the associated CO2 impact can only benefit your business. You can be seen as an organisation who cares about their environmental impact and consumers and businesses alike will want to do business with you.