It’s tough to boil down the best practices of a successful energy management program to just a few topics, and it’s also hard to explain just what is required of a person to run a successful program. But we’ll give you a few topics you should focus your time on, in order to get your energy in order.
When we refer to energy, we’re referring to reporting, metrics, project development and management, awareness and accounting to anything remotely related to objects that USE energy. Whether it be natural gas, diesel fuel, electricity, potable water or sewer, all of which require energy to provide the service. By reducing the consumption of these utilities, we’re able to reduce our “energy footprint”, or essentially the negative effects that power generation has on the earth. By being a good steward of what we were given, not only feels good and has positive affects in our daily lives, but it can also help save you MONEY. Everybody loves to save money, am I right?
Whether you’re an Energy Manager by profession, a home owner, engineer, or innocent bystander, its beneficial to know which things to look out for when it comes to energy conservation; something of which will take ALL of our help to get us back on track to saving this planet.
Here are some key areas of focus to hone in on:
Develop a plan for you energy and water program – Come up with a couple documents that state what drives the energy program and where it’s supposed to go. Have a goal, use hard numbers. This will help when trying to quantify how well you’re doing at reducing that energy year-over-year. Having a goal is healthy, NOT having a goal is like driving a ship without a captain. It’s detrimental.
Research emerging energy efficient and renewable energy technologies – Stay up on the latest and greatest technologies to keep your installation and its staff privy to innovation. This not only keeps you relevant in the world of technology, but often leads to increases in the security of your energy systems.
Promote energy awareness – Make people feel good about saving energy! Tell them, educate them, show them why and how they are doing well. People like to be informed these days on what’s healthy and what isn’t. Show them graphs of energy saved, or proposed savings in dollars (something they can relate to) for new technologies. Show them the why, and the yes will follow. Promote energy awareness events to improve energy behavior, and you will start to see positive results.
Allocate resources to manage and align business operations in support of short or long range plans – Have a plan, but better yet, create a pathway for success using all options. Business will get behind you if you can prove that down the line, investing in a new energy infrastructure will benefit not only the “energy” division, but even the line of business? That’s a winning solution. Keeping tenants happy and secure should always be your number 1 focus.
Determine resources, facilities, and support activities required to accomplish program objectives – Look at the whole picture, use key stakeholders to leverage knowledge that’s in the group to determine the best path forward. You MUST consider all opinions when developing a successful energy project. Just because the project saves energy, doesn’t mean its economically viable.
These are only some of the areas you should focus on from a high level to lead a successful energy program. We hope this helps and leads you in the right direction, getting your installation (or multiple) energy program dialed in.
Hope you enjoyed!
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