Member Article

Using software to monitor and reduce energy use

It’s environment focus week on Bdaily, and we are looking at what the low-carbon economy really means for UK SMEs, as well as picking apart the nuts and bolts of adapting business to “go-green.“ Here, Tim Clapham, director at Planon, explains how software can play a part in green business strategy.

Sustainability has always been an important issue for forward-looking companies, but we are now seeing it rise to the top of many business agendas; during a recent survey, we found that 82% of respondents cited sustainability as a key focus for them over the next 12 months.

For modern businesses, sustainability holds the key to cutting energy costs, becoming more environmentally friendly and meeting increasingly stringent regulations. Efficient facilities management provides an effective way to meet all of these requirements and, as such, many businesses are now looking to facilities managers to determine how they can change their existing processes to achieve a number of important business benefits – such as cost reduction and compliance.

Software is now available to assist companies in all these goals, and is therefore making it possible to for businesses to pass responsibility for this area onto their employees. Because this kind of software can be employed to measure consumption, it is also able to provide greater visibility on exactly what energy is being used and where. Once this has been identified, employees can then use the software to monitor their energy usage, so that they – along with management – can determine when consumption is at its highest, and where it’s most concentrated.

With this information at their disposal, employees have clear evidence to act upon to reduce their energy and carbon consumption, and the company will be able to improve its green credentials at the same time.

With all employees taking these actions, businesses will have the opportunity to achieve impressive results in this area, which will not only boost the company’s image in the eyes of its customers, competitors, and new business prospects, but will also have the knock-on effect of bringing down operating costs across the business when energy and carbon consumption has successfully been reduced. As a result, businesses will be able to achieve a clear ROI in a very short space of time.

There is software capable of delivering all of these benefits right now. Companies simply need to understand and embrace these solutions – and their role in their wider energy saving initiatives - in order to support their commitment to greater sustainability in the months and years ahead.

Here are some other environment focus articles that may be of interest to you: carbon reporting in logistics firms; what are the benefits of electric vehicles?; we talk to a print business about why SMEs need to go green; find out how one innovative business is using ozone as a cleaning tool; what does sustainability really mean to your business?; funding support for green businesses; a green adaptation case study; why innovation is needed to finance energy efficiency; why you should adapt for profit, not just green credentials; and carbon reporting: friend or foe?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tim Clapham .