This was the title of a great article published on CleanTechies. Focusing on the energy part of the Chief Sustainability Officer – my green dream job – it is bringing a lot of interesting informations and examples.
Advocating improved energy purchasing and efficiency, I believe it should be read by any business-minded person or manager as each and every company can benefit from such practices.
This is no surprise as I have been advocating energy efficiency time and again here as the panacea to all our energy and climate problems.
Without further ado, here are some extracts of the CleanTechies article :
Why do so many companies fail to capitalize on the abundant opportunities to save money through improved energy purchasing and efficiency?
One reason may be the lack of high-level positions for energy management at many companies. This is a practically a “no brainer” because the position can often pay for itself in four to five months. Sustainability leaders should advocate for this role either within their own group or at the corporate level.
Opportunities to save money are everywhere. In our consulting work we consistently see opportunities to reduce overall energy spend by 5 percent to 15 percent through projects with a two to three year payback period.
This is serious money for companies with energy budgets approaching $50 million, and starts to really add up for firms in the $500 million range.
(…) At the local level, a lack of ownership leads to huge waste. For example, at one very large manufacturing facility, certain machines and operations were needlessly left running during the third shift, yet no one “owned” the responsibility for determining when the machines could be shut off, costing the company $40,000 in energy in one month.
This really makes you think on how our simple daily decisions – or lack of – can lead to huge wastes…
the reason for lack of environmental focus is simply a matter of economics..as long as it is cheaper for companies to neglect the environment–and avoid change, then there will not be any–change–it is entirely the responsibility of the techies and scientists to prove to the corporate mind–that a specialist in energy efficiency could indeed save the bottom line…then, change may occur.
Agree, at least partially.
Many studies show that business as usual scenarios will lead us all to certain doom on environment, energy and… business.
But these studies are dismissed by some big companies who rely on the status quo. And these very companies lobby heavily for that.
I provided proof time and again here that without drastic change, we will end this decade in a much worse situation that we started it.
Check out the incoming articles ^^