An accountants guide to better energy management for your business

There are two good reasons why all businesses need to take energy management seriously. The first is that everybody needs to play their part in the fight against climate change. The second is that it can do a lot to reduce your business’ costs.

Here, Rogers Spencer, specialists accountants in Nottingham provide their insight into what you need to know.

Good plans start with good data

If you already have a smart metre, there’s a good chance that it produces statistics on your energy usage. If you don’t, then you will probably still be able to get the data you need. It will just take a bit more money and/or effort.

If you are a solo operation or small firm, you may be able to figure out where your energy is going by going through your business processes. It should be easy enough to tell which processes use which kind of energy (i.e., gas or electric). You’ll then need to make a reasonable estimate of how much energy they use.

If you’re in a larger firm, by contrast, this approach is likely to be totally unrealistic. You’re probably going to need an energy monitoring system. This is likely to be a valuable investment in any case. It will help you to track your energy usage over the long term.

Ideally, you want to monitor your energy usage in blocks of at most half an hour. You also want to monitor it over an extended period. This will allow you to identify patterns in your energy usage. You can then look to see how they correlate to business activity.

For example, you might expect your energy costs to spike in peak summer and the depths of winter as you use A/C or heating. If, however, you take on a lot of temporary staff in spring and/or autumn, you may actually find that your peak use is then.

Survey your staff anonymously

Statistics are great but they may not be able to tell you everything your staff could tell you. For example, statistics may tell you that your computers draw a certain amount of energy. They may not, however, be able to tell you whether that’s genuinely the computer itself or a computer with a phone plugged into it.

Your IT department may be able to tell you whether or not phones are being plugged into computers. With that said, hopefully, it can only report on work-issued phones. Barring exceptional circumstances, all other phones should be blocked from making data connections with your work computers. This keeps you safe but also prevents your IT staff from seeing who’s plugging phones into computers.

Ideally, therefore, you should improve your knowledge of what is actually happening in your workplace by getting feedback from staff. If you’re in a small office with an open atmosphere, it may be feasible for you to get meaningful feedback in a regular conversation. Realistically, however, even here it might be better to let staff contribute anonymously.

It’s important to know your suppliers

Businesses tend to use long-term energy contracts. The fact that these are long-term means that they’re only changed relatively infrequently. This means it’s vital to leave yourself plenty of time to do your research beforehand. Keep in mind, however, that the lowest-cost deal isn’t necessarily the best. Reliability and customer service matter too.

Be prepared to invest money to save money

In the real world, there is usually a limit to what you can achieve by changing human behaviour. Even though people are often willing to do their bit, the simple fact is that they have a lot to do and to remember. The busier they are, the harder it becomes for them to remember to make the changes you want them to make.

That being so, it generally makes more sense to leverage technology. As a rule of thumb, the more modern a device is, the more energy-efficient it is. In some cases, you may be able to save even more energy by changing your approach to performing tasks. Also, using smart devices whenever possible can enable you to save even more energy.

Many of the energy-saving suggestions for homes also apply to businesses. In fact, some arguably have even more relevance to businesses. For example, businesses often have to use a lot more heating and lighting than the average home. Anything that improves the energy efficiency of a business’ heating and lighting is, therefore, likely to be a priority.

At the same time, however, certain energy-saving measures apply particularly to businesses. Here are some of the key ones.

Review your opening hours

The fewer hours you open, the less you need to spend on energy for your workplace. It might even be worth asking if you need to keep a workplace at all. Is your workplace really a vital hub of productivity and/or collaboration? Alternatively, would renting pop-up spaces as required be more economical?

Reducing or eliminating office time doesn’t have to mean burdening employees with extra costs. Firstly, they’ll save time and money on commuting. Secondly, you could offer them additional payments to help cover the extra energy costs. Overall, however, this could still save you money.

Update your IT

Over recent years, many businesses have accumulated numerous electronic devices. These will typically be various forms of computer (e.g., desktops and laptops), tablets and phones plus various accessories.

If this sounds familiar, then it’s time to streamline. Work out what you really need and/or want. Then get completely rid of the rest. If you don’t have them, people can’t plug them in and use them even if they don’t need to.

Then have a root and branch review of what you do and how you do it. Keep an open mind to all suggestions, no matter how off-beat they might seem. For example, if you’re still using Windows PCs, think about replacing them with Chromebooks when their lifecycle ends.

Consider returning to corded accessories as these don’t need power. See if you can limit the number of printers and scanners you have (and their use).

Get rid of your kettles

The humble kettle can be one of the biggest power drains in any workplace. They are also serious health-and-safety hazards. Replace them with vending machines and/or hot-water taps.