Huge opportunities for SMEs to save energy
A survey recently by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) looked into how businesses have been managing their energy consumption.
They found that only 9% of SMEs had ever conducted energy audits on the business, while 69% of large companies had. The numbers ranged from 7% for sole traders to 84% of organisations with >1,000 employees.
This shows that there are huge opportunities for SMEs, particularly, to save energy & therefore save money.
I have found that businesses are put off conducting energy audits because they think they’ll just be told to spend lots of money – that the recommendations will all be about putting in solar panels or other expensive kit.
My approach to energy audits, however, is to look at not only technological options, but also at behavioural & operational changes which can often be no-cost or low-cost activities for quick results.
Back to the BEIS survey, of those SMEs that had done an audit, two-thirds had implemented an energy efficiency measure or technology. 58% had installed more efficient lighting, 50% more efficient heating and 46% building insulation improvements. The survey unfortunately seemed to cover only technological measures.
So, there is great potential for companies of all sizes to look more closely at their own energy consumption to find opportunities to save energy & money in their business.
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