|
December 2006
Beyond the Basics
The finer points of managing and purchasing energy (Plus – Top Five Energy Purchasing Strategies)
Retailers are spending an estimated $20 billion a year on energy. That kind of spend will wreak havoc on a bottom line, unless companies find reliable ways to maximize energy usage and reduce consumption overall. Because the largest percentage of retail energy use stems from HVAC and lighting, effectively managing those two line items is more than enough to move a profit-and-loss red line to black.
There are numerous ways to save—reducing lighting costs with energy-efficient lamps, installing energy-management systems to monitor and control energy use, and controlling air infiltration with energy-efficient doors and windows, among them. But, once a retailer has grabbed all the low-hanging fruit, how can savings continue to be reaped?
According to Jeff Hart, president and CEO of Cincinnati based expense-management firm Cadence Network, collecting in-depth and reliable data is the necessary first step toward creating a meaningful, comprehensive and ongoing energy-management program.
“You have to know exactly where you are before you can map where you need to go,” Hart said.
Any retailer, he added, can do a procurement deal or replace an HVAC unit and realize some return on investment.
“The real challenge is getting your arms around all of the information so you can prioritize your strategy for energy management,” Hart said.
Once the basic steps toward energy management have been taken, and data has been collected and analyzed, auditing completed and energy more effectively procured, a retailer can move toward expanding and fine-tuning strategies. Ongoing energy management at retail relies on effective communication between individual stores and the corporate energy team, allowing effective training and continued policy and procedural reinforcement. Communication tends to keep the corporate-level energy-management commitment fueled—since even simple energy-saving measures such as installing energy- efficient light bulbs require commitment by management to ensure such measures are consistently and uniformly applied.
|