Save billions in energy costs by developing a sustainability culture

Have you begun considering the need for energy reduction strategies due to projected volatility of energy costs or increased pressure from the investment community to lower your corporate carbon footprint? Perhaps you’re just looking for ways to operate smarter and more efficiently. Whatever the motivation is for your company, the good news is that up to more than 40% of energy-efficiency improvements can be made right now with little or no capital investment.

Many companies believe they can only improve energy efficiency through significant use of capital; but these are not the first actions companies should consider. Capital will often be more effective and bring faster payback if the energy culture is optimised first.

Where most companies fall flat is in their ability to implement their energy-efficiency system and get everyone on board with the sustainability vision of the organisation.

Six starting points for an effective energy management system include:

1. Commitment from leaders: Obtain a clear commitment from leaders in order to ensure that energy efficiency is given the same weight as production, quality and profitability in management decisions. One senior member of staff should also be designated the Energy Champion.
2. Goal setting: Set measurable goals that are integrated with production, financial, quality, safety, cost and all other metrics tracked by the company. The energy metrics should be written in a simple way so that every employee can understand how their daily actions impact energy efficiency.
3. Ownership: Give ownership to line management. The magnitude of energy savings opportunity and corporate goals need to be strongly embraced by senior management so that line managers realise these directives are not temporary or the organisational ‘theme of the month’.
4. Centre of competency (CoC): Set up a CoC - a virtual organisational structure connecting all the site energy coordinators and other energy subject matter experts with the senior Energy Champion.
5. Upskill staff: Encouraging staff to be on the lookout for energy-efficiency improvements and providing specific training related to the equipment they operate should be included in the program.
6. Create multidisciplinary teams: All personnel are empowered to identify problems. DuPont has found that in many organisations, employees notice issues and discuss them informally but there is no obvious mechanism in place to analyse the issue.

These are just a handful of suggestions to get your energy management system up and running. Like many cultural change initiatives for operations, they focus on using what you already have more effectively rather than deploying capital to bring in ‘something else’.

For businesses where implementing an energy-efficiency program has become increasingly urgent, turning your attention to the cultural rather than capital aspects of the change can be highly beneficial.

Since 1990, DuPont has implemented cultural, operations and capital programs to continuously reduce energy usage and related costs. As a result, the company has achieved a 6% absolute reduction in total energy consumption, while production has risen by 40%, netting over $6bn in savings to date. Implementing cultural change will not only synergise future capital changes you make, it will help you realise upwards of 40% of the total energy-efficiency opportunity, reducing your footprint and generating immediate cash savings, while positioning the organisation for ongoing sustainable success, whatever the future might bring.

For more information please see the white paper (http://www2.dupont.com/Sustainable_Solutions/en_US/assets/downloads/EE_Culture_Change_White_Paper.pdf) co-authored by Smith and Davide Vassallo, Global Practice Leader, DuPont Sustainable Solutions.

*By Chris Smith, the Global Director of Sustainable Operations at DuPont Sustainable Solutions. As a qualified chemical engineer, Smith has been instrumental in achieving sustained improvements in operational, safety and environmental performance for a range of clients in the oil and gas, healthcare and aerospace industries.