REVIEW

The first step to take to understand performance and target savings right away

1. Set a Destination Vision 

In strategic terms, a program vision should project a compelling mental image of what a better, more sustainable Net Zero future would look like for the organization and the people involved. The challenge is to inspire colleagues to review how they impact on energy & sustainability performance and know that their efforts are part of a common, greater goal.

Use your vision to capture imaginations, show clear business benefits, underline that it is easy, and create the emotive connections for colleagues to get more involved: create hope and a sense of excitement about tomorrow.

2. Share & Sanity Check your Plan

Being clear on the plan from the start not only helps avoid confusion but also allows you to consult for feedback early on.  If people understand and input into the plan, they will be more likely to commit.   It they don’t, you’ll quickly erode their interest.

Visually present your strategic plan, ideally on a single page, showing how all the critical activities needed fit together with a clear line of sight to the strategic objectives and your destination vision.

3. Review your Key Performance Indicators

KPIs are used to show whether critical activities are working successfully; the metrics used serve to monitor and measure the effectiveness of these actions. Involving your colleagues in developing your monitoring measurement and verification plans helps ensure buy-in for baselines and monitoring requirements as well as the success measures themselves - means that KPIs and performance measures are more likely to be owned by the people involved.

Encourage your colleagues and teams to monitor energy performance using common and shared KPIs; so they track actual versus expected resource use (in absolute consumption terms) and review their performance in terms of energy efficiency, utilization or  productivity performance (in specific consumption terms).

4. Organize Treasure Hunts 

Treasure hunts can be a fun way to engage colleagues in identifying low-cost energy savings opportunities, from behavioral, operational and technical interventions and actions. Typically, teams walk around a targeted facility looking for quick ways to reduce consumption waste; lots of small opportunities can all add up to large savings.

Use the idea of hunts to engage significant resource users on a practical specific awareness level, allowing them to put on an “energy improvement hat” and look at areas they know well.  Consider carrying out hunts at night as these particularly may reveal golden opportunities otherwise hidden during the day.

5. Run a Personal Pledge Challenge  

Studies suggest that personal plans are more effective at changing our behaviors if they include pledges, particularly if those pledges are in a written format.  Pledges can include changes to personal everyday actions such as changing habits or improving a particular process and more general commitments such aso reducing carbon footprint or increasing recycling rates. Asking colleagues to make personal pledges empowers and drives them to think about what they care about the most, and what they want to work towards.

Consider using personal pledging as part of a campaign to help stimulate awareness and create dialogue around sustainability issues and Net Zero targets.  Smart phone apps can help monitor progress and overall impact.

REDUCE 

Prioritize engagement activities that engage colleagues to reduce consumption of resources.

1. Challenge Everyday Champions 

Everyday champions are colleagues, regardless of their field or profession, who think about and act for better energy & sustainability performance within their work area; quite often, local everyday champions can make a significant impact by committing to just 20 minutes a day.

To be effective, champions must be mutually supported and supportive and their efforts coordinated by organizational managers and practitioners.

2. Empower Local Improvement Teams 

Local Improvement Teams are groups of everyday champions, led by an energy and sustainability representative or lead champion which coordinates and applies structured methodologies to improve processes towards achieving a common task or goal. Once the team is in place, ensure the approach empowers the representative to look after the needs of the individuals.

Set-up local energy & sustainability management team/s and help co-create team charter/s which define purpose, scope, objectives, timeframe and strategic plans.

3. Set Up a Small Projects Fund 

For small projects, the availability of a projects fund can really encourage and support colleagues to champion ideas even when they come at a cost.  Such a fund demonstrates good support for the program from top-management.

Set up a fund that on-site teams can easily access to implement small improvement projects, upgrade equipment, etc.  Remember, targeted in the right way, investments lead to greater savings and returns.

4. Specify Procurement Eco-Labels

Labelling has proven to strongly influence people’s choice in their purchasing decisions. Energy labels, for example Energy Star, can make it easier to identify more energy efficient equipment options. The Green Guide Rating is an example of a scheme which reports on more general environmental impact.  For making decisions, ensure that colleagues consider the relevant eco-labels into context by taking into account the best overall value across all the key procurement objectives.  Record the reasoning for the procurement decision to ensure the intent and sustainability credentials are understood after first purchase.

Review and specify the use of relevant eco-labels for when colleagues buy new or replace equipment and materials. 

5. Set Up Operational Controls 

Operational controls, for example through the use of standard operating procedures, aim to ensure target behaviors are achieved by reducing the opportunity for other choices or behaviors. It is usually better to specify actions to do things in the right way, rather than focusing on what not to do.

Look to set-up, review and continually improve the procedures and specifications you use, for example for your shutdown or fire-up time schedules, performance criteria set for comfort conditions, lighting and heating levels, and the standards you have for design and procurement decisions.

REUSE

Once reduction interventions are in place, reinforce actions with interventions that enhance ability.

1. Sponsor Colleague Training 

Never forget the importance of improving skills, changing mind-sets and creating better behaviors. Training (for new skills) is different from education (for new knowledge), although workshops and programs often use both. Industry-accredited training is desirable for significant resource users to demonstrate their better skills and performance. Coaching helps colleagues to focus their efforts on current objectives by understanding the challenges and developing their own solutions.

Keep your colleagues updated through regular workshops, blended with in-person and online training and coaching as appropriate.

2. Utilize Gamification Methods 

Gamification is a type of training that can help focus people on particular skills through iterative experience and instant feedback. Gamification often draws on competition, recognition and reward opportunities.

Reward energy saving ideas or behavioral change pledges, and give people and teams credit for their efforts and results. Try to make better sustainability a game that everyone wants to play.

3. Sponsor Key-Connectors

Key-connectors are a type of sustainability representative or champion empowered to influence and create local connections between people and activities, helping to overcome barriers and challenges. People who are natural good communicators, and who know a good cross-section of people across an organization usually make good key connectors. Good examples include people who work in facilities management or as office receptionists.

Ask senior connectors to act as ambassadors to help influence top managers (to sponsor work areas etc.). Sponsor key connectors to act as lead champions or representatives for their local areas.

4. Make Incentives 

Incentives may include using prize draws, financial rewards such as bonuses and/or social rewards such as recognition.  This is different from coercion, which uses penalties or adds cost. Studies suggest that social rewards are usually more effective than financial rewards. However, use incentives with caution, as studies also find that individuals could perceive a task as too difficult if the reward is particularly high, or that an excessive focus on rewards can weaken a genuine interest in the task. Don’t rely too heavily on financial rewards as there’s a risk of reversing impact as soon as incentives cease.

Consider incentivizing people to develop themselves and improving performance by linking challenge with reward.

5.Design in Social Enablers 

As well as empowerment, social enablers may include use of smart phone or web apps or other ways to increase means and reduce barriers to increase people’s capability or opportunity for action.  Studies have shown that such enablers, used along with other interventions, can be the defining factor for successful behavior change programs.

Design in a social enabler strategy that promotes enhanced local responsibility, collaboration and empowerment.  Provide support as required.

RECYCLE

Connect colleagues and recycle ideas, actions and feedback to seal change longer-term.

1. Highlight Top Management Commitment in Tracking Progress

It is essential that top managers support energy & sustainability management programs and demonstrate their commitment. Standards, such as ISO 50001, underline the role of top management in successful outcomes; without this commitment, programs usually fail. Ultimately, continual improvement is demonstrated by measurement and verification of progress at high level. Tracking actions bottom-up provides early warning signals. If progress isn’t been made, the approach and support processes need reviewing.

Highlight commitment from top managers in monitoring progress, the necessary resources made available, and their more general support, feedback and recognition.

2. Update Organizational Policies & Procedures  

ISO 50001 and ISO 140001 defines that organizational energy & environmental policies should provide the framework for setting and reviewing objectives and energy targets.  Continually review and include a commitment to ensure the availability of information and necessary required resources, and to satisfy applicable legal and other requirements. Continually improve overall performance and the associated environmental management system, and support procurement and design practices that improve on environmental performance.

Incorporate changes in practices and requirements into organizational policies, job descriptions, training, appraisals and other procedures for colleagues.

3. Employ Suggestion Schemes

Suggestion schemes are mechanisms that allow colleagues to offer their own ideas for performance improvements. Creating such a mechanism, for example, is a key requirement for ISO 50001 good practice.  This could be managed as an ongoing initiative, or specifically promoted at defined times. It is important to respond to any idea submitted within a credible period to avoid colleagues becoming disillusioned in the suggestion scheme management system.

Pixar, for example, set-up a day where employees could make suggestions about opportunities they felt passionate about to save energy. Of more than 100 ideas discussed that day, the Studio prioritized and focused on 21 of them to operate more efficiency.

4. Develop an Energy Crediting System 

Energy crediting is a bottom-up process used to allocate savings to people and teams, rather than just buildings or areas.  This can have a great impact on behavior, making sustainability and energy saving desirable, engaging, and easily accessible to everyone.

Develop a system which lists of improvement ideas and associated benefits and tracks progress being made.  This allows colleagues to see what actions are being taken and can also be used as the basis for a recognition and reward.

5. Earn Certifications

Earn recognition for your organization's hard work by taking advantage of one or more of the numerous programs and initiatives that will validate and legitimize your company’s efforts. Certificates also instill a sense of pride within the company and establish your industry leadership outside your organization.

Let everybody know about your commitment to greater energy and sustainability performance, and your successful people-centered approaches.

RETHINK

Challenge mindsets, look for new ways of doing business and trial new ideas.

1. What’s Next?

Use annual management reviews to look at ways to adapt your approaches and streamline activities and refine strategic checkpoints to guarantee and self-propel momentum.

Keep asking the question ‘what’s next?’ to guarantee momentum in what you’re doing.

2. Surveillance Controls

Surveillance controls are used to monitor changes in stakeholders’ requirements, such as legal requirements, internal factors and external threats.  They ensure goals are still realistic and achievable, now and in the future.

Put in place strategic surveillance to monitor for factors and events which are likely to influence improvements in energy & sustainability performance. Update plans and strategy maps as required.

3. Energy Performance Partnerships

If positioned in the right way, partnerships can help engage, empower and incentivize the teams involved. You can use initiatives such as energy performance contracts or energy crediting to help support this.  

Structure your energy performance improvement projects to be delivered more in partnership with teams, service partners or other organizational stakeholders or groups.

4. Expand the Resource Management Team 

Putting in place an energy & sustainability management team is a fundamental requirement for standards such as ISO 50001. A team is made up of at least one person with responsibility and authority over the effective implementation of an energy management system to deliver energy performance improvement.

Look to expand the resources management team to include a better mix of people with different skills and perspectives, including energy and sustainability managers, energy champions from across the organization, and senior management ambassadors.

5. Renew Objectives, Targets and action plans

Objectives should target and involve significant utility resource uses, and take into account strategic energy requirements and policies. Action plans define how objectives and targets will be achieved, including resources required, responsibilities, and how the results will be evaluated. Set them up so they can be communicated and updated, as appropriate.

To guarantee momentum for continually improving energy & sustainability performance, be prepared to regularly review and reset your objectives, targets and action plans so they are, and continue to be, specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and timely.

Summary

Use this checklist to help you develop your confidence in your approaches and processes to engage your colleagues to get more involved with energy & sustainability action on the ground.

This checklist provides 25 more engagement techniques that can be adopted at different stages of a program, aimed at sparking initial interest, showing business and personal benefits, keeping momentum going and instilling a sense of excitement about the future.

Focus on the few big strategic actions that will make the biggest difference in helping your organization deliver the ‘Win for All'.

If you haven’t already – check out the first part of this checklist, to help you create the buzz at Smart Saver level.

Try out the ideas that most suit your organization’s needs and let us know what worked for you!

Download

If you would like a downloadable summary checklist of this, please contact us.

• It’s in Microsoft Word, but it can easily be converted to another Word processing format, such as Google Docs. It’s read-only, so you’ll have to save your version onto your own drive to be able to modify it.
• You can then modify and develop this simplified checklist to suit your needs as required. Complete it on line or print it out (but remember: think before you print!)

Do you know whether you’re only using what you need?

• Most organizations consume much more energy than they need – this adds extra cost and environmental impact.
• Many of us have more energy & sustainability processes than we need – this adds friction & makes it all harder to do.
• Energy is often marginalized within organizations – because it’s seen to be a technical subject, not interesting or not understood.
• Consequently energy is not deemed to be core business or it’s contracted out to service partners and then side-lined.
• The result: strategic decisions are made without considering energy use, its cost or other impacts.

Yes, many of us are taking actions, but there’s so much more we can do.

Experience shows most of us struggle to optimize solutions. We may lack the engagement, alertness, skills, recognition or ability to adapt.

Follow this guide to find out to go to the next level.

Step 1: It starts by highlighting reality

How balanced are your pillars for success?

But in reality they rely on People and Organizational practices to work well

1. How confident are you that you’re only using what you need? 
2. What are your opportunities and priorities to thrive as an Energy Conscious Organization (EnCO)?

This guide uses an illustrative framework to check confidence for only using what you need & the checkpoints to ensure:

• Balance in outcomes – to deliver the 'Win for All’ to lock in benefits long-term
• Balance in skills – for an integrated approach to make it all intuative & easy
• Balance in measures – to check energy performance against goals & activities

Success is not about following any specific framework, but about being able to ask the right questions to the right people at the right time.

We see ultimate performance is the point when you’re absolutely confident you’re only using what you need.

  The 5 Pillars for Success for an Energy Conscious Organisation (EnCO)

 Engagement | Alertness | Skills | |Recognition | Adaption

• Developed by the Energy Services Technology Association (© ESTA).
• EnCO is a simple self-analysis tool to help assess the five people pillars for success.
• These are related and interdependent to define an Energy Conscious Organisation.
• The EnCO Matrix is used to assess the 5 pillars against 5 levels:

           - Level 0 to indicate little or no progress

           - Up to Level 4 to represent best practice

• Use informal conversations with colleagues as the basis to discuss and agree which levels apply to create the ‘current’ position.
• The profile, along with antidotal feedback from colleagues, forms the benchmark & the EnCO confidence score.
• An uneven profile highlights the weaknesses that can undermine the strengths.

Step 2: Win for All Catalyst - Engagement

Is everyone engaged in the right way for the ‘Win for All’?

Engagement is about creating the right conditions so colleagues can contribute:

• to organizational goals,
• in a way that benefits the people involved - the ‘Win Win’.

The ultimate outcome is a ‘Win for All’ – our organizations, our customers, our planet and ourselves.

It needs to involve All of Us

For any given task, we need to bring together the team with different perspectives, and then meet the needs of the individuals.

Asking the Right Questions:

1. Do you fully understand the context & needs/ expectations of your key stakeholders?
2. Is there a good compelling vision/ mission with a set of priorities/values in place?
3. Does everyone understand their role in delivering these?
4. Are you measuring, nurturing and continually improving your engagement?

Step 3: Alertness

Are all colleagues alert to the energy opportunities and measures to take?

Energy management through people is often one of the quickest & most cost effective ways to save energy & enhance sustainability

A collaborative approach means there’s more upfront discussion about opportunities & the questions to ask: 

1. Are goals and objectives realistic?
2. Are (strategic) activities delivering balanced outcomes for key stakeholders?
3. Which dragons of inaction are impacting on levels of alertness & action? (see box)
4. Are there adequate surveillance controls in place to monitor for changes in context & requirements?

The 7 Dragons of Inaction 

According to psychologist, Robert Gifford, there are 7 reasons why colleagues may not fully engage with your catalyst for change: 

1) ‘Limited cognition’: people tend to only have the capacity to think about short-term objectives, e.g. “My priorities are elsewhere.”

2) ‘Discredence’: there’s a natural mistrust or denial to new things, e.g. “I don’t believe people can make a difference.”

3) ‘Comparisons with other people’: to justify why they should do more, e.g. “if other people aren’t doing anything, why should I?”

4) ‘Sunk costs’: it’s usually hard to buy into something that conflicts with previous efforts, e.g. “we’ve tried it before, it didn’t work.”

5) ‘Perceived risks’: could be social, psychological, financial or physical, e.g. “it wouldn’t be normal for me to be green”

6) ‘Ideologies and beliefs’: people set their views to justify why they shouldn’t take action, e.g. “the boss won’t like it.”

7) ‘Limited behaviors’: some people offer tokenism; e.g. “we recycle, isn’t that enough?”

Step 4: Skills

Do your colleagues have the right skills to exploit the opportunities?

The Balance of Skills for Change

Prosci’s ADKAR model illustrates we need skills for an integrated approach:

• It starts with Awareness
• Then comes the decision to get involved; we need to create Desire
• After desire comes Knowledge
• Then Ability to make change
• For change to be sustainable, Reinforcement is needed

Focus efforts on Proficiency 

• Studies have shown that Ability is often a defining factor for successful change.

• It is a common error to think Awareness alone improves performance.

• Awareness increases Knowledge but, for it to be effective, it needs to be part of an integrated skills approach.
• Reinforcement often relies on Desire and the Balance of Skills to deliver success in outcomes.

1. Do top management, practitioners & significant users have the skills to deliver the activities required?
2. Have you absolutely minimized the amount of controls/procedures in use?
3. Are tools in place to make the activities as quick & easy as possible?
4. Can training/coaching/gamification help with developing confidence, skills & performance of those involved?

Step 4: Performance metrics - Recognition

Are you recognizing, measuring and reporting the results?

Typical Problems:

• No recognition of the benefits of energy management, savings achieved or those making savings.

Common Best Practices:

• Data systems in place with capacity to recognize savings achieved against robust targets.
• Recognizing benefits and co-benefits.

• Those making savings are routinely recognized and celebrated.

Link metrics to people & results

• Target measures that energize teams.
• Energy crediting systems can link savings to people and teams to facilitate recognition & reward – bottom-up savings should also be verified top-down.
• Dashboards/ trackers/ apps help people to make quicker/better decisions and reinforce & maintain momentum.
• Whether it be absolute or intensity measures that are better will depend on the situation.

The Balance of Measures

• Primary measures (overall organizational performance)
• Secondary measures (system/process or local performance)
• Indicative measures (which explain why performance has changed)

Measures can be either Lead or Lag:

• Leading (input) indicators offer the opportunity to change, but do not guarantee success
• Lagging (output) measures are used to assess past performance; they’re usually easier to measure but are after the fact

For best results, we need a balance of measures

Are you delivering the right results?

1. Are metrics communicated in a concise way so everyone understands how they contribute to strategic goals?
2. Do evaluation controls adequately monitor progress and provide feedback?
3. How are people rewarded for success?

Step 6: Adaption

Do your policies and practices effectively drive continual improvement and momentum?

ISO 50001 is the international energy management system standard to help us

Apply ISO 50001 in a streamlined fashion for effective continual improvement. Balance strategic thinking & controls with operational management processes

Do you need to adjust your plans?

• Are your goals and objectives realistic in the current (and future) context?
• Are you focusing on the right priority energy management activities?
• Does your team have the required skills and resources to deliver the activities?
• Do you have the right (minimum) checkpoints in place to monitor activities?
• Are your evaluation and feedback processes adequate?
• Are you achieving the right goals? Will you be delivering the right results in the future? 

Most impactful activities + the right checkpoints = confidence you’re only using what you need

What’s next?

Are you always asking the question ‘what’s next’ to drive momentum?

Leonard Bernstein, the well-known American composer, once said: “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time”. The time organisations have to accelerate towards Net Zero is shrinking. As part of this, there are increasing pressures on energy users from employees, customers, shareholders, regulators, and other interested parties to significantly improve levels of energy efficiency throughout their operations and processes.

Evidence suggests that behaviour change offers around 50 per cent of the total potential energy savings available. The other 50 per cent comes from technology and yet, as important as it is, technology typically gets 95 per cent of the focus. A better balance is required to ensure that the hidden and largely untapped savings available from behaviour change are realised.

Behaviour change is considered in its broadest sense, targeting attitudes, behaviours and decisions implemented by those who influence energy performance as well as those who have direct hands-on control of equipment and systems. Getting behaviours right also enhances and protects the legacy benefits of technology investments as they rely on sociotechnical systems for success.

Energy Conscious Organisation (EnCO) is a framework developed by Energy Services & Technology Association and the Energy Institute to help incorporate people measures into energy management strategies and plans.

The vision is to excite and equip enough colleagues to challenge the norm and to encourage widespread adoption of energy efficiency good practices throughout the organisation.

At the heart of the EnCO framework is the EnCO Matrix.

A Balanced High EnCO profile across all pillars is associated with a mature energy management programme that accelerates progress towards sustainable Net Zero goals.

Low scores across some or all pillars are indicative of significant opportunities to improve an approach.

A strategic gap analysis is therefore used to compare the ‘desired’ position (often targeting three to five years ahead) with the current profile, to feed into the development for the catalyst for change.

To bridge the gap, change makers need to understand what motivates the people involved on a personal level. People’s actions are often driven by emotive connections that come about from connecting with colleagues, having fun, a better workplace, better skills, achievement, recognition and reward. A successful catalyst often includes targeted co-benefits resulting in a ‘win-win’.

The business case is set up by focusing on the key strategic activities which make the biggest difference in delivering the required goals. This should address the organisation’s readiness to deliver change (available resources, knowledge etc), key barriers (capabilities, attitudes etc) and its ability to sustain change. T

o develop a good plan, focus on overcoming any deficiencies across the EASRA pillars, rather than specifically following a framework.

1) Balanced Low

Profile 1 is uniformly low across all pillars. This is often underpinned by low overall engagement. Energy performance, for example, may have been marginalised because it has been overly delegated to a specialist, service partner or aM&T system.

Having top managers on board is essential. They need to demonstrate their commitment by defining a compelling vision, providing the resources needed and taking interest in progress made.

There also needs to be a strategy to engage Significant Energy Users (SEUs), those who can impact on or influence significant energy use. This includes HR, procurement and development colleagues as well as building users, facilities and operational teams. Don’t forget consultants, suppliers and contractors.

All Energy Users (AEUs) also need to understand the energy policies in place, the benefits of improved energy performance and their roles and responsibilities.

The overall plan and channels used should achieve engagement and also momentum for a balanced approach.

A high profile launch event can create a good splash to raise awareness but has little momentum.

Digital or print communications also often have limited shelf-life. Training, performance appraisals, incentives and suggestion schemes are all examples of channels that offer more momentum.

2) Unbalanced

A profile highly developed in Engagement and Adaption but which lags in other areas operates in a positive atmosphere but lacks substance.

Colleagues being alert to avoidable energy waste, before investing in clean and green technologies, is a fundamental principle of the energy hierarchy.

AEUs need to be alert to the impact of their activities on energy performance. An SEU may negatively impact on overall performance, due to increased energy use, when making operational decisions for seemingly good reasons.

Command and control approaches with too many organisational procedures can reduce alertness. Nudge, prod or persuasion techniques are generally more effective; sharing energy consumption profiles, for example, can help highlight opportunities.

Critical mass theory implies that we need at least 2-5 per cent of colleagues taking simple actions every day to reach a tipping point of energy consciousness for lasting change. For an organisation of 4,000 people, this means involving at least 80 SEUs.

Energy champions can influence others by example. A network of volunteers can promote energy saving values and connect colleagues together. To be effective, they need to be carefully recruited, trained and supported.

For a balanced approach, colleagues need to be highly motivated and highly aware. Asking people to rate their awareness and motivation levels can be a useful way to track levels of alertness while getting them to think more about opportunities and getting new champions on board.

3) High Peak

Profile 3 is highly developed in one pillar only. This could be any element and is most commonly related to the style or strengths of the manager leading the programme.

As well as motivation and opportunity, people need to have the capability to deliver change. Teams need to have a balance in skills to implement an integrated approach, highly developed across all pillars.

Training is often a key strategic activity that helps raise the other pillars simultaneously. A training strategy should be driven by a training needs analysis, mapped across the key audiences. Colleagues need to know what they are expected to do and be competent so actions are quick, easy and intuitive for those involved.

The whole team has a key role to communicate the vision and to lead by example. It is important to be able to communicate well with colleagues to gain and build trust. Collaborative workshops and events are effective ways to bring people and teams together to develop alertness, desire and capability and trial solutions at the same time.

HR colleagues are often essential key connector champions for continual learning and up-skilling.

4) Low Valley 

Highly developed in all but one pillar highlights the need to develop this one aspect to fully benefit from the other activities.

This could be any element but quite often what’s lacking is recognition. Robust data systems are needed to track savings against baselines and targets. Ideally, this should disaggregate interventions for detailed evaluation. Longer-term monitoring and targeting is essential because impacts can dissipate over time, but this doesn’t have to be complex.

Full adherence with the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP) is desirable but is not always practical; it is the most widely used protocol for quantifying results from investments.

A measurement and verification (M&V) plan should be agreed prior to the programme. Involving stakeholders to develop the methodology ensures it’s owned by the people involved. Methods to adjust baselines for both routine (e.g. weather) and non-routine adjustments (e.g. changes in floor area) should be considered.

A balance of measures is also required to sustain and propel momentum. At high level, energy performance can be measured in absolute terms at whole-facility level. This verifies total savings but, as this is a lagging (output) measure, this can’t influence momentum.

Indicative measures are used to explain why performance has changed. System energy productivity or utilisation intensity measures require investment in sub-metering and a sufficient run-up period to calibrate baseline models.

Leading (input) indicators offer an opportunity to control momentum but do not guarantee success; it can be difficult to define which measures are best. Scorecards can track observed behaviours and team actions against targets. The repertoire would be specific to the organisation, site or team. 

Dashboards, balanced scorecards or crediting systems can be used to help facilitate quicker and better decisions, incentivisation and celebrating success. Do not rely too heavily on incentivisation as there’s a risk of reversal if the incentive is taken away.

Focus on a simple strategic set of concise measures for which everyone understands how they contribute to strategic goals. Beware of data overload, data rich and information poor (DRIP syndrome).

5) Jagged

A mix of some developed pillars with others not so developed is likely to be typical for most organisations. An uneven profile highlights the weaknesses that can undermine the strengths.

Organisations need to be able to continually adapt to plug the gaps and respond to minimise risk and maximise opportunities in a timely way to sustain and propel momentum.

The energy landscape is continually changing and this is becoming more dynamic as the pressures to improve energy performance increase. 

Surveillance controls monitor changes in stakeholder requirements as well as internal factors and external threats. Continually check that goals are still realistic and achievable, now and in the future.

A good plan needs to be agile focused on the key strategic activities, with a clear line of sight to the strategic objectives.

Adaptations are about continually increasing the means and reducing barriers to increase capability, opportunity or motivation. 

ISO 50001 is the energy management system standard that helps target the key activities. As well as energy policies, processes and action plans, the standard focuses on operational controls and design procurement standards to sustain behaviours. Energy and management reviews, objectives and targets and strategic controls are used to self-propel momentum. 

General George C Marshall, famous for his World War 2 planning and his plan to rebuild Europe, said: “The one great element in continuing the success of an offensive is maintaining the momentum.”

6) Balanced High 

Highly developed across all pillars generally at levels 3 or 4 is indicative of the well balance and mature approach of an EnCO.

EnCOs are more sustainable, cost effective and collaborative. The business case for interventions to get to the EnCO level comes from defining and questioning reality by asking the right questions at the right time, and the EASRA framework can facilitate this process.

Is everyone engaged in the right way? Are all teams alert to the energy opportunities? Do they have the right skills to exploit them? Are you recognising, measuring and reporting results? Do you need to adapt your policies/ processes to drive continual improvement? What’s next to guarantee momentum?

There needs to be a compelling vision and clear balanced plan in place with the sense of urgency. Align big ideas with strategy in a way that will excite decision makers and colleagues alike.

There also needs to be a strong team in place, with clear roles and responsibilities. Remember people often don’t like change. Don’t expect results too quickly – it may take time.

Don’t overcomplicate it, keep it simple. Aim to balance quick wins with longer-term actions. Pareto’s 80/20 principle encourages us to target the 20 per cent of the scope that yields 80 per cent of the results.

Overall, the plan will depend on the organisation; there’s no silver bullet, every organisation is different. The focus often should be on blending people and technical solutions, with targeted organisational strategic controls alongside.

Tactical techniques support strategic activities and there are many to choose from; EnCO defines over 140 different interventions. Organisations will need their own unique combination to deliver change for themselves.

Any organisation can become an EnCO by demonstrating ‘Balanced High’ achieving outcomes cross the five EnCO pillars: Engagement, Alertness, Skills, Recognition and Adaption.

EnCO registration and display of the logo act as evidence of good practice to shareholders, regulators, customers and colleagues through externally verified recognition. Becoming part of the wider EnCO community also enables sharing of good practice to further drive the continual improvement mindset needed.

Registered EnCO Consultants (status gained through training) and Approved EnCO Practitioners (with proven experience) can support organisations to achieve the EnCO status.

References:

1. Case-studies and process, EnCO Website at www.energyconsciousorganisation.org.uk
2. Making change the norm, by Jes Rutter, Energy in Buildings and Industry Magazine, Feb 2021
3. Energy consciousness has never been more important, by Jes Rutter, Energy World, Jan 2021
4. Tools and techniques to deliver behaviour change, by James Brittain, CPD module 06, Series 16, Energy in Buildings and Industry Magazine, Nov/Dec 2018
5. Energy management systems – Requirements with guidance for use, BS EN ISO 50001:2018
6. International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol, Core Concepts, EVO 10000 – 1.2016
7. Behaviour change for low-cost energy savings, by James Brittain, CPD module 02, Series 14, Energy in Buildings and Industry Magazine, June 2016
8. Ten steps to change, by John Mulholland, Energy in Buildings and Industry Magazine, July/August 2014.

Delivering best value 

In its simplest form, energy as a service (EaaS) is a philosophy that re-orientates an approach to energy management to focus on service and delivering best value. Partnering up with specialist energy service partners can help organisations enhance their energy management strategies, target the avoidable energy waste, upgrade energy service assets, accelerate energy efficiency programs and deliver large energy savings at scale.

At its most extreme, EaaS can mean an energy services company (ESCO) is providing specialist energy services, without the consumer needing to own the service systems or pay for the direct operational costs of those services, including energy.

To understand the concept of energy as a service a change in mindset is required. It doesn’t have to be complicated. This CPD article aims to explain the concept as well as giving an overview of how approaches are applied in practice. Learning objectives include the following:

More end-users, in recent years, have been looking towards energy service models to help fast-track energy efficiency projects, clear maintenance backlogs, replace old assets and/or to install embedded energy supply infrastructure.

Good practice is to target energy conservation and efficiency measures first in line with the energy hierarchy. This change in approach has been led by the public sector, but more private sector companies are beginning to follow suit.

The opportunity for energy service models is to help optimize energy performance for a wide range of different types of organizations. If they get this right, these strategies can help drive value beyond just energy through, for example, delivering better customer service, better security of supply, better system resilience, reducing overall service costs, improved environmental impact and better organizational reputations.

Back in the 1880s, when pioneers likes Thomas Edison marketed new electric products, the propositions were about supplying a service.

When procuring a new service, to make the best value decision, a consumer needs to optimise across all their objectives, including across both the capital cost of equipment and operational costs. This is the value of energy as a service and it is this approach that incentivizes reducing energy consumption.

As a simple illustration, Table 1 shows example costs for a range of different fridge freezer models, all rated at the same service level, considering capital and running cost and combining them in equal terms in the form of a total service life cost (ignoring discount rates/inflation).

In simple terms, there are two approaches to procurement:

• Buy the product: energy use is usually invisible at time of purchase so our decision is based on capital cost alone – we tend to buy the cheapest, the A model.
• Buy the service: if total service cost (say over 10 years) was packaged up in one sum – we are more likely to buy the most economic option, the A++ model; this costs 18 per cent less in total cost and 50 per cent less in energy consumption. 

Unfortunately, most of us still generally procure using Approach 1: the desire of both developers and construction clients, for example, to keep product project costs down generally overrules. Many projects still don’t forecast operational energy use and cost. Consequently, there’s a general lack of awareness of the benefits of more efficient options. Enhanced energy efficiency measures are seen as discretionary and so they can be engineered out as service value isn’t properly understood. These awareness barriers mean that customers end up paying the cost of inefficiency over the service life.

Energy service pricing models are based on selling the customer an end service for a periodic fee, e.g. based on a monthly cost. These can take into account other monetary equivalent value such as reduced maintenance costs or improved service levels. For many energy services, energy consumption tends to account for a large proportion of total cost so this model opens up the opportunity to reduce energy service cost (and so increase the value of the service) by targeting avoidable waste and enhancing energy service productivity.

When considering energy as a service, a consumer would naturally switch to another energy service option if it would deliver better service at reduced cost (the Win Win).

According to ESTA’s Energy Services Contracting Group, an ESCO is an Energy Services Company that offers a turnkey service to the client to identify, implement, operate and maintain energy cost saving or revenue generation measures in the form of an energy performance contract (EPC) or energy supply contract (ESC) depending on the scope of services. (4)

This may be for a whole building/ facility or for a proportion of the energy services. ESCOs typically operate on an agnostic technology or solution basis, bringing together specialist sub-contractors depending on the specific project requirements; they are often offered by existing facilities management, engineering or energy management specialists.

As such, energy expertise requirements, life cycle cost analysis and technical, performance and/ or financial risk exposure can be transferred by the client to an ESCO so the approach has the potential to overcome the awareness and risk barriers associated with traditional approaches to procurement.

ESCO provision through EPCs in the UK is currently valued at approximately €100m a year (5).

There are two common EPC models in the UK that can either be used separately or in combination:

1. Guaranteed performance model – typically based on an upfront capital payment and/or a regular service fee in return for implementation of new assets and/or energy-saving measures, with a guaranteed minimum level of energy cost savings and revenues. This is the main approach used in the UK; it’s the basis for programs such as Refit, the Scottish non-domestic energy efficiency framework, etc. Financed projects allow clients to avoid up-front capital cost, in preference for a monthly positive cash flow. The guarantee means the provider covers any short fall below the guaranteed level such that the project’s financial performance is always maintained; 
2. Shared savings model – the provider is paid based on a percentage share of delivered cost savings and/ or revenues. Even though more popular in Europe, in the UK this is generally used in combination with a guaranteed performance model with shared savings providing a bonus level for any over performance, such as for the Carbon and Energy Fund framework for the NHS/public sector.

Figure 1 shows a typical finance model for an EPC illustrating how guaranteed cost savings and revenue pay for the cost of the service. In most cases, the contract term is set to exceed the payback period of the investment.

It is important that there is a clear understanding of the brief and roles and responsibilities at the start. Top management needs to be on board by setting out key requirements, appointing an internal project manager and ensuring appropriate targets are stipulated. Different people are likely to be involved in the process; for example financial managers (interested in cost) and property managers interested in technical specifications and service levels. Clients need to have the procurement (and contract management) capabilities to ensure appropriate risks are truly transferred to the provider.

Commonly, the provider takes on project, technical and performance outcome risks. Some risks will need to be shared or taken on by the client. These may include energy unit price changes, weather impacts or impact of major changes in customer building/process use (both the latter can be accounted for in the M&V process). Upfront assumptions need to be transparent and clearly documented.

An investment grade audit, used to identify and set specifications for energy conservation measures, can be quite involved (and expensive) especially where assumptions need to be made up front for a long-term commitment.

Defined and measured 

Service level requirements need to be defined and measured, depending on the services in scope. For example, building user comfort requirements may be specified using objective measures (temperature, air quality, lighting levels, etc.), supported and evidenced by collective user customer feedback.

Energy consumption should be understood in terms of its driving factors. For instance, units produced is often important in manufacturing sites, covers in restaurants, and external temperature for supermarkets with high refrigeration load. This can help understanding of energy service productivity, drive continual improvement and form the basis for M&V.

For better insight into effective energy savings measures, it is important to involve local maintenance and operations teams who are closest to and so best understand the (changing) needs of their customers. Beware, without a collaborative ethos, an EPC model can cause conflict with incumbent service providers. The secret is often to blend the technical and people based approaches, with good energy management ISO 50001 system controls alongside.