Business can profitably and significantly reduce their energy and greenhouse gas emissions. Both business imperatives are possible to achieve now with the new and innovative energy management approach, “Energy as a Profit Centre”.
Einstein famously said that “we cannot solve our current problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. Ensight developed “Energy as a Profit Centre” to provide a fresh and new approach to how a business sees its energy supply and use. Energy as a Profit Centre shifts energy use from being a fixed cost in business to one that can leverage its profit. A side benefit of this approach is that it axiomatically provides a plan to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, profitably. This is dramatically different from the current narrative that reducing greenhouse gas emissions must cost business.
Energy as a Profit Centre provides the framework to see energy from a different perspective than the current narrative. What is the current narrative and what narrative do we create with Energy as a Profit Centre. The current narrative is that all energy systems are efficient now, energy is a fixed cost to the business. And if there are inefficiencies, these inefficiencies are small, and they will cost a businesses’ bottom line to secure. Energy as a Profit Centre changes this narrative to one that says, energy is variable cost, that there are large and low-cost changes that can be made to a business’ energy system that will result in large energy and cost savings. It just needs a different way of thinking.
This change in perspective will allow a business to profit from changing its approach to its current energy system. The change of approach allows a business for the first time to take a fresh look at its entire energy footprint. One that results in an integrated, holistic analysis. Energy use gets identified and evaluated along the whole value chain of the business. Shifting energy a fixed cost, to a variable cost, one that generates free cash flow from the current energy system.
Businesses can expect Energy as a Profit Centre to reduce energy costs by up to 25% and even more. Some businesses can see 50% cost reductions. Whether your business is a quick-service restaurant, a convenience store, a gas station, a hotel chain, a metals smelter, a plastics factory, an underground mine, an integrated resort development or a school district, it doesn’t matter. All these businesses share one common theme; energy costs form a significant portion of their controllable operating expenses, yet do not know it.
The large energy cost savings delivered by Energy as a Profit Centre would be inconceivable before today. The total change in the cost/revenue for one mining business was $30M per annum. At a KFC, energy costs were reduced by 25% with this approach, with plans to achieve a 50% cost reduction.
The five phases that form the Energy as a Profit Centre are:
- Energy Excellence Blueprint
- Energy Insight System
- Integrated Site Synthersier
- Governance SPARK
- Sustainable Saver
Energy as a Profit Centre’s five phases as set out above each contains a set of detailed energy engineering activities. When these activities are implemented, Energy Analzyer (Ensight’s Energy Management Enterprise software) provides and manages a profitable energy reduction plan. Several tasks are used to identify all energy usage, establish usage baselines and design an innovative solution will all data maintained in the Energy Analyzer. After implementation, all measured and verified savings are securely stored on Energy Analyzer.
Energy as a Profit Centre identifies, evaluates, designs and implements, measures and verifies and provides power management dashboards to ensure enduring energy cost savings are both maximised and sustained. Implementation of the Energy as a Profit Centre establishes a business-wide Energy Management Program (EMP). The EMP will align with the business’ corporate strategic goals. The EMP will drive the business’s operational plans, budget plans and greenhouse gas emission reduction expectations. Along with energy cost savings, the program reduces greenhouse gas emissions and lowers maintenance requirements.
To a platinum producer, Ensight demonstrated savings of over 20% or over $50 million savings that generate free cash flow. For a KFC we empowered a franchisee to save over 50% of their current energy and water costs. For a school district, 50% cost savings have been identified for implementation.
