UK Businesses Unite to Boost UK Energy Efficiency at EMEX on 22 & 23 November in London

LONDON, November 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Many businesses have an enormous opportunity to both pollute less and save money by making quite straightforward bread-and-butter changes. Dynamic leaders in the public and private sectors are showing others the way, while an increased profile for environmental causes has provided some impetus.

Energy is a cost to most organisations that has grown as a proportion of overall expenditure in recent years. All energy consuming organisations need to manage energy consumption if they are to avoid the impact of price increases on the products or services they provide. In this context, the case for investing in energy efficiency has never been stronger and of course, the cheapest energy is the energy organisations don't use.

There is considerable potential to make large energy cost and carbon emission savings through the installation of energy efficiency measures. The energy efficiency technologies that deliver these savings are readily available, tried and tested, and often repay their initial capital cost within just a few years. Such improvements can provide significant long-term cash savings for organisations and reduced exposure to future changes in energy costs.

As with other types of project, top level leadership remains the key to unlocking the resources to deliver projects and overcome barriers.

One area of operational expenditure that has been largely overlooked, but which has substantial potential to deliver savings, is the cost and use of indirect materials and resources, such as water, energy, maintenance and hidden value in assets.

Also, the latest developments in behavioural change can help businesses to engage with staff so that they become active players in reducing operating costs while improving sustainability credentials, all this with no capital outlay and no interruption of day-to-day business.

With a clear majority of big energy users from public and private sectors discussing energy management at board level, this underlines the fact that managing energy is now a business-critical function and that energy management is on a par with other strategic decisions. 

These facts are also supported by the data collected during the ESOS audit and released by the Environmental Agency. While nearly 97% of the completed audits were carried out by external lead assessors and a large majority of audited companies have discussed results at board (74%) and Senior management (90%) level, 60% of companies declared having no energy efficiency targets and only 6% have published information relating to their ESOS audit. Despite this, 72% of those companies were open to adopt some form of energy efficiency measures.

Many researchers found that saving on energy costs is a motivator for carrying out energy efficiency measures with a significant growing trend for factors other than simple cash savings, which are driving investment forward. Protecting the environment is an important motivator for action, as well as improving energy efficiency as a way to increase competiveness and protect business reputation.

Lord Rupert Redesdale, CEO of the Energy Managers Association (EMA), said that, "reducing energy demand is critical to reducing energy costs. Three distinctly silo'd functions have long been responsible for carbon and energy reduction in organisations. This trio of Sustainability, Facilities and Energy Management often achieve the same end-result of cost, carbon and utility reduction but via very different approaches."

"I'm very excited that for the first time, we are bringing together IEMA (The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment), BIFM (the professional body for facilities management) and The EMA (The Energy Managers Association) communities under one roof," said Redesdale.

"BIFM is keen to take part in events such as EMEX where members can see and evaluate options in order to put in place the right solutions for their companies. BIFM members have to act as intelligent clients and this event will help them to enhance their knowledge of running successful contracts for energy management and sustainability," said BIFM Chief Executive Linda Hausmanis.

Taking place on Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 November 2017 at ExCeL in London, EMEX is the must-attend energy management show that connects all energy users with leading experts, policy makers, suppliers and technical solutions with more than 130 exhibitors, 80 seminars across 5 topical theatres, and over 100 speakers.

With such diverse solutions, knowledge and expertise on offer, it is not surprising that thousands of small and medium businesses, as well as household names such as Coca-Cola, NHS, British Airways, Harrods, Hilton Worldwide, Boots, RBS, TATA, British Land, Ministry of Defence, AstraZeneca, Sodexo, Microsoft, Bellrock, BAE Systems, Co-Operative Group, Ofgem, Network Rail, MITIE, CBRE, Whitbread, Mitchells and Butlers, British Telecom, House of Fraser and many county and city councils are already confirmed to attend.

For more information and register for free, please visit http://www.emexlondon.com.