International. As global business leaders gather at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos this week to talk about energy and environmental challenges, a new study published by Schneider Electric reveals that most organizations feel prepared for a decentralized, decarbonized and digitized future, but many are not taking the necessary steps to integrate and promote their energy and sustainability programs.
This false sense of security can be attributed to the finding that most companies still adopt fairly conventional approaches to energy management and climate action. Similarly, limited coordination between procurement, operations and sustainability departments, as well as inefficient data collection and sharing make innovation gaps higher.
81% of companies have made efficiency upgrades or plan to do so, but 30% or less are considering new energy opportunities such as microgrids and demand response.
According to the survey of 240 large corporations ($100 million in revenue or more) around the world, 85% said their company will take steps over the next three years to keep their carbon reduction plans competitive with industry leaders. But projects that have been started or are in development lean heavily towards energy conservation, water and waste management. Outside of renewables, few of the organizations represented are implementing more advanced strategies and technologies to manage energy and emissions.
Key findings include:
- 81% of respondents have made energy efficiency upgrades or plan to do so within the next two years; 75% are working to reduce water consumption and waste.
- 51% have completed or plan to pursue renewable energy projects.
- Only 30% have implemented or are actively planning to use combined energy storage, microgrids or heat and power, or some combination of these technologies.
- Only 23% have demand response strategies or plan to do so in the short term.
"We are in the midst of a massive disruption in the way energy is consumed and produced," said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, president and CEO of Schneider Electric. "The near-universal focus on conservation is positive. However, being a smart consumer is only part of what it takes to survive and thrive. Businesses must prepare to be an active energy participant, put the pieces in place to produce energy, and interact with the grid, utilities, partners, and other new entrants. Those who do not act now will be left behind."
A primary barrier to progress may be internal alignment. 61% of respondents said their organization's energy and sustainability decisions are not well coordinated between teams and departments, especially for consumer goods and industrial companies. In addition, the same number of respondents said that lack of collaboration is a challenge.
Data management was cited as another obstacle to integrated energy and carbon management, with 45% of respondents stating that the organization's data is highly decentralized and handled at the local or regional level. Of the people who identified "insufficient tools/metrics for data sharing and project evaluation" as a challenge to work with across departments, 65% manage data at the local, regional or national, not global, level.
Scottish company iomart, a leader in managed cloud services, is an example of a company that is taking an integrated, data-driven approach. It works to coordinate energy efficiency and environmental management across the network of data centres it owns and operates in the UK.
"Having actionable data and intelligence is essential," said Neil Johnston, the group's director of technical operations for iomart. "But what happens once the information is available is equally important. Our procurement, energy and sustainability teams compare data and develop shared strategies to manage consumption and emissions, and reduce costs. That collaboration has generated significant savings for the business, and has helped us achieve ISO 50001 accreditation and meet Carbon Reduction Commitment requirements."
