Energy Crisis: Why Now’s the Time for UK Businesses to Act
Jamie Cameron, Director of Digital Solutions at Johnson Controls UK&I, comments on the need for businesses to reduce their expenditure on energy as hundreds of thousands of businesses are projected to fall victim to rising energy prices.
As measures are being implemented to ease the effects of the energy crisis for households, we’re officially starting to realise the impacts it will have on businesses.
Businesses too need to get to grips with the measures they can take to ensure bills stay as low as possible. After all, buildings use around 40% of global energy, emitting nearly a third of the world’s greenhouse gases. As policies and public opinion sway further towards sustainability, businesses risk losing out on talent, incentives and profits if they fail to make their buildings more efficient.
But to save on energy costs, businesses need to first understand what, when and why their buildings are spending on energy. For example, what equipment is using energy? What time it is turning on? Where is it turning on?
The only way to accurately measure energy usage at scale and quickly is to use an energy management platform. Users and owners alike need to gather the data and analytics on every major piece of building equipment. Organisations can then set a baseline to constantly review so they can improve the energy performance of the site. From there, they can then start to introduce smarter energy-saving technologies.
Luckily, solutions already exist that are relatively quick to implement, such as a data platform. Unlike replacing operational technology or introducing renewables – that is time consuming and expensive – energy performance financing against a guaranteed ROI is readily available and easy to introduce into a building.
With rising charges and continual changes in government legislation, businesses must look to technology for a better, brighter way of managing utilities.
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