Something has to give.

Will it be you? Your staff? Your business viability? Or can we draw deep on our resourcefulness to improve energy productivity, reduce energy waste, use alternative fuels, and take your business to the next level of energy performance?

We would like to think the latter is true. Technology costs are reducing, low-hanging fruit re-grows, and we continue to find cost-effective opportunities to reduce energy costs.

Through speaking with our customers, we find that they have three main problems:

1. Corporate targets and budgets for energy and greenhouse gas are not being met.
2. Data is unavailable, or inadequate to manage energy cost
3. There are not enough resources (human or financial) to address energy cost.

This is why we introduced a new product to help our customers get the resources they need, address data issues, and achieve their corporate targets. It is called “Virtual Energy Manager”, an outsourced support service that is designed to give you direct access to our complete team, and aligns our financial interests with yours. We don’t just see ourselves as a service provider, but a partner that is passionately interested in your success.

The Virtual Energy Manager provides you with access to the skills of an experienced energy management team without the associated costs. We assist you and your management teams to set and achieve energy productivity goals, comply with energy or greenhouse gas regulations, and create and implement a program of works.

At Northmore Gordon, we guarantee quick wins within three months and share the risk and rewards over the life of the program.

For more information, check out our Virtual Energy Manager page or contact us directly.

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A Type 2 Energy Audit is a comprehensive review of a facility’s energy performance, providing a baseline picture of energy consumption and costs, how energy usage relates to production and other variables (such as weather), comparison against industry benchmarks, and identifying and quantifying a number of opportunities for energy efficiency, productivity improvements, and cost reduction.

Unfortunately, due to the breadth of the report and difficulty prioritising, it can be hard to know which direction to take after an energy audit, and often the initial enthusiasm generated by it can dissipate.

To make it easier we’ve set out the pathway you can follow after an energy audit to capitalise on the opportunity to reduce energy costs:

Prioritise: Use a value-ease matrix to identify the high value and easy projects (just do), high value and difficult projects (strategise), low value and easy projects (incorporate into planning), low value and difficult projects (shelve).

Plan and Assign: The energy audit sets a baseline and performance indicators you can track energy consumption against. It’s important to assign responsibility to one or more individuals in your team to monitor consumption and oversee implementation of energy saving opportunities

Implement: Begin the process of implementing high value easy to do projects by changing operational practices or integrating into procurement and capital plans.

Strategise: Establish an energy management strategy, to ensure management decisions include consideration of energy, that a coherent plan and targets are established to reduce energy costs and consumption, and stakeholder engagement is obtain at all levels.

Review: Once you’ve followed these steps you’ll have a plan of action to follow for a year or so and this will require periodic review (at least yearly). Schedule in this review now to ensure evaluation or project progress and benefits takes places.

If you need further help getting your energy projects headed in the right direction, get in touch with us. We can help with each of the above steps and talk through what support you need to continue the journey.

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