Carbon Net Zero is high on the agenda for the majority of business’s today and achieving this goal will require a united change from all business’s, small or large. With energy being one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, it is critical that together they play their part in reducing the demand for energy to enable a transition to net zero.
Whether users are at the beginning of this journey or have already started to implement a plan, it may all seem a little daunting. However, by putting the foundations in place to monitor energy usage and through implementing carbon initiatives, they can undertake the challenge of setting a plan for the next 30 years.
Carbon net zero initiatives
From insights and learnings of working closely with the customers and partners, they have learnt that although their approach may vary, what remains nearly consistent are the steps which are followed to plan out their carbon net zero initiatives. They would like to share these insights with the users to help them plan out their own journey.
It might seem obvious but the starting point is to make sure users have all the right data
Step 1 – It starts with data - It might seem obvious but the starting point is to make sure users have all the right data. When it comes to Power & Gas consumption, users may believe that all the sites are smart metered (HH) but that does not mean users have good quality data (98-99% complete for all the sites).
In their experience, not only does the user need good exception reports, automated exception management, and easy ways to store and see the data, they also need a good relationship with the providers, and know who to call to work through missing data.
Net zero journey
Don’t be daunted. With all providers now looking to support their customers on their net zero journey, this step can be easily managed. So with some good technology tools, and proactive management users will find their data sets in much better shape in no time at all. The goal is to get them to 99% complete, so users have a firm foundation to build on. And once complete, they can then move onto Step 2.
Step 2 – Make the data meaningful. Once users have the data, it is time to start making it meaningful. This may vary depending on the business however the goal is to analyze the data in a way which makes sense to the business.
A school uses energy differently to a restaurant, or a manufacturer so it is important to group similar sites together and add additional key facts about that data (e.g open/close times, square feet/meters). These additional dimensions of data help the user contrast and compare sites. This will allow users to understand the data in a meaningful way which allows user to move to Step 3.
Good quality data
They can also start to understand the benefit of moving outliers back to the norm
Step 3 – Spot the outliers, and benchmark. Once users have good quality data which has a meaningful overlay, they can now begin to spot the best performing and ‘could be better sites’ within their portfolio. They can also start to understand the benefit of moving outliers back to the norm, and what carbon savings the company could derive from any initiatives they start in Step 4.
It is worth considering not all outliers are real. For instance, a school that uses more energy after it has closed may have an after-school club providing valid reasons why the data could be different. So the data has to be combined with insights from the sites which help them understand the data. This provides a great opportunity to speak with on-site teams, and colleagues which help set the users up for Step 4.
Company with carbon initiatives
Step 4 – Engage the company with carbon initiatives. Whilst the climate movement has been on-going for many years, it is only in recent times it has been hitting headlines. And since the start of the pandemic, it has hit home just how fragile the systems are and how important it is to take care of the planet. The good news is users have a lot of listening ears and willing people to help!
The good news is users have a lot of listening ears and willing people to help
The topic of behavior change, and change programs is an important factor to consider as part of the carbon net zero initiative.
The carbon and climate stakeholders includes everyone from the CFO/CEO who wishes to know about the strategic initiatives users are implementing, to the person on the shop floor who wants to know how they can play their part in carbon reduction.
Electric vehicle charging
The trick is to identify these change agents, promote their work (and the companies achievements and goals), and empower the teams to easily share information with their colleagues. They might be biased, but a cloud platform with unlimited users and energy information that can be displayed at different levels (carbon, consumption and cost) really helps here!
Step 5 – Plan for the future. Now that the whole machinery of the organization is consistently working on reducing the carbon impact, users can start to turn their attention to those strategic initiatives, like PPAs, electric vehicle charging, on-site generation. These initiatives are longer term, requiring a forward looking view and understanding of consumption, carbon and costs for the longer term.
Completing Steps 1-4 will collate all of this information together and put the user in a position where they can start to plan out what the internal initiatives can achieve (energy efficiency, waste reduction), and where they can look for larger opportunities like adding PPAs into the portfolio, on-site generation as well as electric vehicles.