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Today's business leaders are faced with a tremendous challenge in improving profitability. As unemployment remains high and top-line growth remains a challenge, American businesses must change the way we operate, and we must become less wasteful. Energy efficiency is one tool that can have a remarkably positive impact on the financial health of an organization.
Wasted money that flows out of a business because of inefficient energy use can go unchecked for years
The opportunities to reduce utility costs and put those savings to work in your business are everywhere. Solutions are proven and risk-free to save significant costs that flow directly to the bottom line. In our experience, the first commitment that must be made is to measure and track utility expenses. Today’s managers have more data at their fingertips than at any other time in the history of business, but simply getting a handle on the energy cost per unit of production can be a real chore.
In most companies, utility costs are handled as overhead and relegated to “other indirect costs” or some other vague category that often crosses over several functional departments in the organization. Because energy is not associated with the department that consumes it, energy costs are often not anyone’s direct responsibility and, therefore, the utility bill doesn’t get the right attention.
According to the US Department of Energy, these companies have made specific commitments to energy cost reductions and their goals are measured and tracked, leading to a culture of efficiency in these organizations that often carries over into other aspects of the business:
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PepsiCo
Goal: Improve non-renewable electricity and fuels consumption efficiency by 20% and 25%, respectively by 2015 against the baseline year of 2006.
Result: In 2007, global beverage business reduced electricity by 8% and fuels by 7%, when compared with the baseline year.
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Owens Corning
Goal: Reduce energy intensity 25% by 2012 against a baseline year of 2002.
Result: More than half way to meeting the goal at the end of 2007.
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Kimberly-Clark Corp.
Goal: Improve energy efficiency by 15% by 2010 when compared with 2005.
Result: Achieved 8.5% improvement in energy efficiency since 2005.
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3M
Goal: Improve global energy efficiency by 20% between 2006 and 2010 with 2005 as the base year.
Result: Through 2008, energy efficiency has been improved by 19.2%.
In the issues to come, you will see stories of real success from sustainable initiatives, and you will learn about resources to help you either get started or enhance your current sustainability program. Reducing wasted energy expense is not a far-out risky proposition; it is a commonplace and straightforward set of steps that simply suffers from lack of regular attention in most companies. We at Lime Energy welcome this opportunity to share our experience in what we do, which is to reduce energy costs; and we welcome the opportunity to collaborate with what you do best, which is produce outstanding products that make money.
