Sustainability
Article | July 7, 2023
While most businesses presently strive to achieve environmentally friendly operations and lower their carbon footprints, this argument might not sway all businesses or company executives. While using renewable energy sources or energy management systems has clear environmental benefits, businesses that want to improve their operations and decrease overhead expenses should also consider such technologies.
A steady and high-quality power supply is required for the smooth running of any kind of industry. Energy management systems (EMS) are used by a variety of industries to provide a consistent and dependable supply of energy.
Energy Management Systems: Advantages for a Business
Businesses and industries that use energy management solutions often achieve considerably bigger savings than those that do not use such systems. EMS examines all of the company's processes and enhances them for energy savings. The savings realized by the usage of energy management systems have a direct influence on the bottom line. Some of the most significant benefits of energy management systems are listed below.
Improved Brand Image
Using energy management systems result in lower power usage and, as a consequence, more environmentally friendly operations. Process optimization is recognized by business clients, customers, and suppliers because it shows excellence in planning and management.
Better Productivity and Competitive Edge
Reducing energy consumption via process optimization and effective load planning not only increases the overall productivity of industrial operations but also helps businesses to catch up with their competitors through continual process development.
Cost-Reduction
Energy management systems can ensure at least a 20% decrease in energy bills. System administrators can save up to 10% of their total energy expenditures with modest investments and no upfront costs. Supervisors can save up to one-third of their initial overhead expenses by using energy management solutions in a planned and methodical manner.
Closing Lines
An energy management system can help any organization save money on energy bills. There are many different energy management systems on the market, so make sure you choose one that is the right size for your business. If you're unclear about which system to buy, a good energy monitoring system can help you assess your performance and point you in the correct direction for process improvement.
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Strategy and Best Practices
Article | July 8, 2022
As the worldwide use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the energy market is expected to reach $7.78 billion by 2024, with a CAGR of 22.49% from 2019 to 2024, it is easy to see why it's a popular topic on the minds of many leading brands in the energy sector, as well as investors looking to reap the future perks that AI could bring to the energy industry.
According to BIS Research, North America is expected to be the largest market for AI in energy through 2024. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to rise rapidly over the same time due to the rising need for more decentralized power production.
Investment Opportunities in AI-based Energy Industry: Economic Visibility
AI's economic viability and progress in the energy business can be attributed to numerous factors, including:
The desire to increase operational efficiency.
Increased interest in energy efficiency.
Decentralized electricity generation is being expanded.
Battery storage solutions are gaining popularity.
Since artificial intelligence has a wide range of applications, there are several investment opportunities in the energy industry.
Upstream Oil and Gas
Enhance efficiency and decrease downtime, which is critical for hydrocarbon companies owing to volatile oil prices and demand, to lessen the environmental implications of energy generation and consumption.
AI Chatbots
AI has the potential to enhance interactions between contact centers and consumers. Utilities that outsource to contact center providers can suffer significant fees. This is where AI, particularly when combined with natural language processing (NLP), can assist contact center operators by listening to conversations and automatically noting information in the appropriate apps, helping operators to make calls more reliable, effective, and satisfying to customers.
Smart Homes and Cities
AI integration benefits smart meters and smart energy management systems as well. Many residences and towns can utilize AI to collect real-time data and apply it in a number of ways to function more effectively and efficiently, enhancing sustainability while also making a living more comfortable and cities more accessible.
Monitoring Trends in Energy Generation and Consumption
Artificial intelligence is being utilized to assist energy companies and customers in recognizing and tracking patterns in energy generation and consumption. AI, for example, can predict the potential output of a certain wind or solar plant.
Closing Lines
Banking, finance, and trade are some of the suitable businesses that can profit. For example, AI and machine learning can be used in algorithmic trading, which involves utilizing computer programs to make trades in the energy business at speeds and frequencies that any human trader would consider inconceivable.
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Strategy and Best Practices, Energy
Article | July 27, 2022
The pandemic emptied out most of America’s offices as workers across the country set up home workstations. Although this looked to be a temporary situation for many, it has become clear that many workers are choosing to continue to work from home, and many businesses are embracing this concept as well. If you’re one of those individuals, you may want to consider adding solar to your home.
A shift in power usage
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, “Americans spent $6 billion more on at-home power consumption from April to July 2020 than during normal times, nearly offsetting a decline in business and industrial demand.” The increase in residential consumption was fueled by increased home heating and cooling demands, workers participating in virtual meetings, running computers, printers, lamps, and other electronic devices all day long. This has resulted in a shift in energy costs from corporations to employees, with many workers seeing significant increases in their home utility bills.
Capitalizing on higher demand to maximize your system size
Solar can be a great way to offset the costs of your home's energy demands. Because your consumption is currently higher than it would be if you were working at your company's office, you have the ability to install a system that will more than cover your electricity needs if and when you do return to a corporate office setting. Although your increased usage means you'll need to add a more extensive solar photovoltaic system to your home to do this, it also provides you with an opportunity to maximize your system's size to meet your needs.
Incentives and savings
The federal solar tax credit, also known as the investment tax credit (ITC), allows you to deduct 26 percent of the cost of installing a solar energy system from your federal taxes. However, that number falls to 22 percent in 2023 and goes away in 2024 for residential projects, while commercial projects are reduced to 10 percent ongoing. The ITC applies to both residential and commercial systems and there is no cap to the size of the system the ITC can be applied to. Making plans now to invest in a solar PV system for your home can be a great way to continue to reap the rewards of working from home without it having a significant negative impact on your monthly utility bill.
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Solar+Storage, Strategy and Best Practices
Article | September 17, 2022
“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”
– Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)
We, humans, had completely buried this quote until it was brought back to life recently. Business leaders should remember this quote as it perfectly fits into the environmental-business perspective that we are presently facing.
If the world has to tackle the problem of climate change or come even close to achieving that goal, businesses and industries will have to play a key role. Almost a quarter, or 23% to be precise, of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, come directly from industries. This number rises to 29.6% if we combine indirect emissions too.
When looking for causes of climate change, the private sector is often linked to. Minimizing your carbon footprint appears to be the year's buzzword, but where can businesses begin with such an ambiguous task? How do we assess progress? Peter Drucker wrote the premise of an answer back in 1954: "What gets measured, gets managed."
If a business really wants to become more sustainable, the first step should be to try to understand its current situation and begin tracking its carbon emissions. Measuring carbon emissions is a difficult problem. Major businesses that do not have carbon monitoring and reduction programs have become the exception.
Recognizing and measuring CO2 emissions aids in the identification of excessive energy consumption and other inefficiencies. Most of the time, lowering greenhouse gas emissions goes hand in hand with making a business's processes more efficient and cost-effective.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: What Do Businesses Gain?
In addition to the long-term environmental benefits that will help us in saving our planet, organizations can also benefit from the positive impacts of greenhouse gas emission reduction. Some of the top benefits of effective emission management are as follows.
Cost Saving
When it comes to cost reductions, simply minimizing your energy consumption reduces both your organization's carbon footprint and its operating expenses. According to a 2016 Energy Star report, the owner of Kimberly-Clark Berkley Mill invested $350,000, which generated yearly savings of $160,000 and a rapid return on investment (ROI) of just over one and a half years when LED lighting was installed to replace the fluorescent and HID lighting that was traditionally used.
Regulatory Compliance
With a 20-fold rise in global climate change regulations since 1997, securing proactive regulatory compliance is much more important than ever in the minds of corporate leadership, public spheres, and stakeholders – and it's only becoming more important. Adopting an effective greenhouse gas emission reduction program, as well as tracking and reporting on progress, is essential for businesses to adopt in order to maintain operations and avoid penalties.
Improved External Relations
Consumer spending power has an enormous impact on the process of shaping organizational action. In the eyes of the public, the process of committing to responsibility in the domains of broader sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions reduction is a significant credibility boost. When your company takes proactive steps to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, the resulting increase in the quality and depth of relationships with potential partners and external business connections is priceless.
Enhanced Stakeholder Relationships
Along with a stronger relationship with the audience, the influence of transparent sustainability indicators and performance has the potential to strengthen crucial relationships with stakeholders. More investors than ever are shifting capital away from carbon-heavy, secretive businesses and toward companies that have decided to be open, proactive, and honest regarding their greenhouse gas emissions management within the sustainability world and beyond. Emission Sources Defined in Business Operations Within a business's operation chain, emission sources are classified into three categories. These scopes are established so that businesses can trace the source of their greenhouse gas emissions and modify their operations to minimize their carbon footprint.
Emission scope is defined as follows:
Scope 1 Emission
Scope 1 emissions are directly caused by business operations. Organizations with fossil fuel-burning vehicle fleets, for example, are directly liable for carbon emissions by burning those fossil fuels.
Scope 2 Emission
Scope 2 emissions are caused by an organization purchasing energy (e.g., electricity, heat, or air conditioning) produced by a process that emits greenhouse gases. A scope 2 emission is, for example, electricity generated by burning coal that a business later purchases. Because the company consumes this energy, they must record the emissions generated when it was generated.
Scope 3 Emissions
Scope 3 emissions are not caused by a company's direct activities. Other entities in a company's value chain are responsible for these emissions. Scope 3 emissions for one organization could be scope 1 and 2 emissions for another. A company that manufactures products, for example, would have scope 3 emissions from a company that eventually disposes of those items. Scope 3 is responsible for most of a company's emissions, accounting for 65% to 95% of a company's carbon footprint. Currently, reporting scope 3 emissions is optional for businesses. Organizations must, however, start tracking their scope 3 emissions since this is where tremendous reductions in carbon emissions can occur.
How Are Large Enterprises Measuring and Reducing Their Carbon Footprints?
Larger enterprises, like Apple and ExxonMobil, have begun to provide scope 3 emissions data. Other companies are collaborating with their supply chain to build collaborative initiatives among companies to report these emissions. Businesses have begun to cooperate even outside of supply chains. Competitors in the same industry have started to form partnerships to solve the issue of measuring their carbon footprints. Because these organizations often share manufacturers and suppliers, they have decided to deal with the issue together.
Other businesses manage environmental sustainability in a different manner.Enterprises in the agriculture industry have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, recycle, and provide resources and information to smaller agricultural organizations wanting to go green.Many of the world’s leading auto manufacturers help by producing vehicles that are more environmentally friendly and have the better fuel economy. Others are creating alternative-fuel cars or investing in sustainable energy projects.
The major retailers, manufacturers, and software companies have all made efforts to reduce their carbon footprint in different ways. Many multinational enterprises are adopting more sustainable business practices, such as using renewable energy and recycled materials in product manufacturing.
How Can Small Businesses Seek Help Measuring Their Carbon Footprints?
For the time being, many small businesses are finding it difficult to gather data on all these emissions that are beyond their control. According to the BBC, only 10% of more than 1,000 organizations surveyed in the United Kingdom keep track of their carbon footprint. Moreover, one in every five companies does not understand what the term "net-zero" means and a third really hasn't sought any help to make their company more sustainable. Exploring available information on measuring emissions data is the best approach for small businesses to understand more about the ways they can reduce their carbon footprint. The EPA Center for Corporate Climate Leadership includes a wealth of resources to assist small business owners in measuring and reporting their emissions. Business owners can learn how to establish a greenhouse gas inventory, measure their emissions, collaborate with sustainable suppliers, and gather data to develop sustainable solutions.
Small businesses can also utilize a carbon footprint calculator to determine the quantity of emissions generated by their activities. Once company owners realize how much carbon they are emitting, they can start to tackle where it is coming from and make the necessary modifications. The most important thing that business owners can do is to always look for ways to improve their business's sustainability. Additional information will be made available to help company owners as they seek guidance on how to minimize their carbon footprint.
Best Practices for Companies to Achieve Net Zero and Stay Profitable
Transitioning to net zero is such a demanding task that many businesses believe it is impossible to do while retaining profit margins. As a result, many businesses concentrate on low-hanging fruit and short-term alternatives, like offloading emissions onto others by divesting from high-carbon-emitting companies. Businesses, on the other hand, can start by creating a greenhouse gas inventory to monitor their carbon emissions. Here are just a few of the many ways we found that could help your business.
Cut Emissions Across the Whole Value Chain
For most businesses, the majority of emissions and the possibilities for climate action lie in "scope 3 assets". These aren't owned or managed by the reporting company, but they add to the business's value chain indirectly. Businesses must take action on scope 3 emissions in order to successfully cut emissions.
Use Sustainable Web Hosting Services
Hosting services are the silent consumers of fossil fuels. Until you host it yourself, your website is most certainly hosted on a data server in a warehouse that runs on fossil fuels. Data servers use a lot of energy since they have to be turned on and kept cool all the time. Renewable Energy Certificates are acquired by sustainable hosting providers in order to claim their renewable energy utilization.
Tackle the Root Causes
The areas of major emissions are often not the most effective sites for action. It is found that businesses are measuring emissions in order to determine underlying causes, either inside their own processes or anywhere in the value chain. Big tech businesses evaluate power efficiency down to the code level in their AI and cloud implementations and collaborate with chip manufacturers to reduce energy usage in the use of their products.
Don’t Automatically Defund High-Carbon Business
Investors are often enticed to enhance their portfolio of low-carbon activities merely by rearranging their capital allocation. However, when it comes to really incentivize reduction, a more effective technique is to engage in activities that presently generate high carbon emissions while giving out a clear and urgent roadmap to change. Some activists have realized this idea and are shifting their demands from divestment to a managed shift of high-carbon businesses.
Purchase Carbon Offsets
Carbon offsets are a type of trade. When you buy an offset, you are contributing to projects that decrease greenhouse gas emissions. A carbon calculator can help you calculate your travel carbon footprint and the monetary cost of those emissions. Remember that carbon offsets do not decrease the quantity of carbon in the atmosphere; rather, they serve as a balancing agent to neutralize the carbon emitted. Carbon offsets could be tax-deductible based on the company from whom you purchase them.
Closing Lines
Many prominent brands, from Amazon to L'Oréal, have started to make significant investments in renewable energy and commitments to reduce emissions in their freight and logistics operations. Being mindful of how your activities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions can assist you in minimizing your carbon footprint. With the above-mentioned methods under your belt, you will be able to support the environment that we live in a while simultaneously pushing your organization to the next level of success. Don't miss the opportunity to get involved in energy-efficiency and sustainability initiatives for your company because the newest generation of consumers, millennials, have $2.45 trillion in spending power and are eager to spend more on brands that share their values of going green.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are scope 3 emissions?
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard divides a company's greenhouse gas emissions into three "scopes." Scope 1 emissions are those emitted directly from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions are those caused by the production of bought energy. Scope 3 emissions encompass all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that happen in the reporting company's value chain, both in upstream and downstream emissions.
What are product life cycle emissions?
All emissions related to the production and utilize a single product, from the cradle to the grave, are referred to as the product life cycle emissions and include emissions from raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, storage, sale, usage, and disposal.
How can industries reduce global warming?
By implementing passive or sustainable energy-based heating and cooling systems, increasing energy efficiency, and solving other important concerns such as methane leaks, the industry can cut its emissions by 7.3 Gt per year. New food production technologies have the capability to cut emissions by 6.7 Gt per year
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