Manufacturing businesses across Europe are striving to reduce their energy usage and costs as they continue to rise, affecting bottom lines and ROI. The planet is also negatively affected by industrial energy use, responsible for 26% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. In the UK, the sector is said to consume 17% of the total country’s energy demand.

With Brexit, some challenges in industrial energy consumption have only intensified in the UK. Bringing up the topic of energy management in the corporate boardroom is an important first step, but what is even more critical is taking a holistic approach by following up and translating those conversations into concrete actions.

It is estimated that a third of manufacturers in the UK do not have any energy goals in place nor have set any KPIs to measure their progress. In addition to this lack of long-term vision, the current energy crisis generating an outstanding rise in energy costs often leading to missed opportunities made it harder for manufacturers to control their expenses and thus, remain competitive.

In this article, discover five measures you can take today to reduce the burden of high energy costs in manufacturing, regardless of your sector of activity.

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The communications sector continues to grow every year, driven by the societal need to be connected at all times and to have access to information in real-time. In the UK, the sector keeps 68.9 million inhabitants connected to the world. In 2020, the revenue generated by British telecommunications amounted to £31 billion. 

Every day, telecommunications providers try to improve their offerings to meet the increasing demand for higher-speed networks. And in an extremely competitive industry with demanding customers who want to find the best deal on the market to satisfy their requirements, companies have no choice but to adapt to stay relevant.

In this article, we will talk about the challenge of energy efficiency in the telecommunication sector through the example of Ooredoo, a Qatari telecom provider.

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Utilities in deregulated markets are under more pressure than ever to attract and retain customers and are therefore more motivated to consider new technologies to extend their energy services offering. 

In our previous articles regarding the Future-Proof Utility, we discussed digitalisation and client loyalty as a push for innovation, and the importance of a customer-centric approach. While both of these concepts are of crucial strategic importance, technology is the vehicle that will ultimately bring the future-proof utility into being.

In this article, we will discuss 5 technologies utilities are exploring and investing in, and what kind of capabilities are needed to meaningfully expand their energy services.

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As a real estate professional, do you manage buildings with very different characteristics such as offices, factories, supermarkets, or warehouses?

Regardless of your focus, energy management and more precisely, understanding how much energy buildings consume is certainly one of your priorities. Therefore, tracking the consumption of your properties, in large portfolios with multiple locations, or in a single building with different spaces, is a must.

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The real estate sector is undergoing major changes. More than ever, awareness and regulation in favour of a sustainable sector are changing the economic landscape. 

Sustainable building portfolios are increasingly in demand at every stage of their life cycle. Therefore, strategies and tools to help identify and implement sustainability and energy efficiency measures are becoming ever more important.

Moreover, achieving energy efficiency in the real estate sector is a real advantage. Indeed, it increases competitiveness and addresses sustainability issues, while complying with legislation and ESG criteria. 

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Can you tell the number of ISO certifications or quality standards your company holds? Difficult, isn’t it?

The world of professional certifications is expanding to harmonise quality standards between countries. Although they are becoming increasingly widespread, you may have doubts regarding their usefulness.

You are not the only one to think so.

International certifications are extremely useful in setting standards for organisations and companies. They help define quality standards in regards to the extent to which companies are respectful of the environment, whether resources are managed efficiently or how personal data and information are handled. In this article, we review the main standards and certifications of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), as well as their relationship to energy and to each other.

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For years, the real estate sector has been using a range of sustainability, quality and energy efficiency certifications to catalogue the building stock and highlight the best-rated buildings.

The ability to categorise portfolios of buildings according to their ‘green’ credentials is very useful in positioning them better in the sales and rental market, as well as in attracting investment. These certificates are not mandatory, but they add reputation and value to your buildings and organisation.

Moreover, in the context of environmental awareness and emission reduction, real estate professionals can no longer be left aside. Buildings require a lot of energy and contribute to the emission of polluting gases, so it is increasingly important to measure, reduce and control this information.

For these purposes, various international certifications are available to establish comparative frameworks in the real estate sector. The main ones are BREEAM, LEED and WELL.

In a previous article, we presented these sustainable building certifications (LEED, BREEAM, WELL). However, in this week’s article, the focus is on the energy aspects of each of them, so that you get a complete picture before taking the plunge. Indeed, we will take a closer look at the energy requirements of these sustainability accreditations and analyse them one by one, considering the weight of energy management in the result.

We have already defined and explained the origin of these green building certifications in our previous article. This time we want to focus on the energy aspects of each of them so that you get a complete picture before taking the plunge. 

In this article, we will take a closer look at the energy requirements of these sustainability certifications. We will analyse them one by one and assess the weight of energy management for each of them.

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Modern factories are investing in technology to reduce their energy consumption, costs and CO2 emissions. This is not new, but the process of digitalisation and decarbonisation has accelerated to meet global energy transition and sustainability goals.

In addition, the constant increase in energy costs pushes companies to become more efficient and reduce overall expenditure to stay competitive. If you want to reduce your internal costs to avoid increasing prices charged to your customers, you have to seek cost-saving options. You can start by establishing energy efficiency measures.

Worldwide, manufacturing is a major energy consumer. In the UK, the industrial sector accounted for 17% of the total consumption. 

Fortunately, given this high percentage of energy consumption, there are options available to use it more efficiently and even reuse it. Waste heat from your machines is a source of energy that you can exploit.

What is this residual heat?

Waste heat or residual heat is the heat produced by your machinery when creating products and by-products. It can be intentionally-created heat or heat released from the simple industrial manufacturing process (metals, automotive products, tiles, food products, etc.).

It can be qualified as a consequence of the production process, usually lost in the air. This is perfectly normal, as your operations team is ensuring that the production process is running smoothly and at a good pace. You might however be interested to know that some of that heat can be harnessed as an energy source in your factory.

Interesting, isn’t it?

In this article, we look at how you can utilise that waste heat to generate energy, the benefits it can bring and how to measure the impact of your utilisation strategy.

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The retail sector has many energy challenges, including balancing sustainability with comfort for customers and employees.

Lighting, temperature and spaces are all designed to the nearest millimetre to provide a good shopping experience, but what about energy?  

In brightly lit shops or those with large spaces, controlling temperature, ventilation and lighting can be complex from an efficiency standpoint.

If you work in the retail sector, you’ve probably thought about how to optimise these areas to reduce your energy costs, and how you can use technology to help you. But how?

Tesco, one of the biggest UK retailers announced that they have reduced their energy consumption by 8% in a year and that they will continue investing in energy efficiency thanks to technology and more precisely Artificial Intelligence.

In this article, you’ll see 5 ways technology can help you control your energy consumption and save energy costs, so you can get your head around the idea and decide whether to take the plunge into the world of digital energy management.

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Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) continue growing in the UK and in Europe to serve all those businesses that want to implement energy efficiency projects.

Many factors including the rise in prices, the increasing awareness of the impact of energy consumption as well as the availability of subsidies have led thousands of companies to implement energy-saving measures. In this transition, Energy Service Companies play a central role in ensuring the success of these energy efficiency projects.

But it’s not that easy…

Meeting the ever-increasing demand while facing a lack of experience and resources is a real challenge. Unpleasant surprises may also be experienced when analysing a building, either because of differences between forecasts and actual consumption or because of possible problems in the customers’ installations.

Has this already happened to you?

An energy management system can be your ally as it will help you assess each case quickly and reliably so that you close more projects. Discover in this article the three main steps to follow that will reduce your next projects’ risks.

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