We are determined to go to the next conference in Bali to achieve a result.
Based on your company’s assessment of its climate related risks and opportunities, a strategy and action plan can be developed. This may involve pursuing a new business model. It also needs to be linked with, and build on, your company’s environmental management systems (EMSs). Targeted objectives will help focus efforts and also provide a benchmark for measuring success. Most businesses can reduce energy use by 10 per cent, almost always resulting in a 10 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, with a one year payback or less.
The next step is to make a plan and allocate responsibilities and resources. For most organisations, a plan to reduce carbon emissions will first focus on the type and way energy is used. This energy includes the electricity for buildings and manufacturing, the gasoline/diesel/gas for fleets and the fuel for other types of travel.
Reducing this energy creates savings that go straight to the bottom line. A US$1,000 reduction in a company’s energy bill equals US$1,000 more profit. This type of efficiency, however, can also increase productivity, see action ‘Get efficient’. But there is also another way to think of this other than saving energy and emissions. Your company is actually losing tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions, by purchasing unnecessary energy and carbon.
One of the most effective tools for plugging this hole is an energy audit referred to earlier. This can be done internally with the help of an outside expert. Many electric utilities and government energy offices now will offer an audit as part of their efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
