Sustainable energy survey 2010

The IBEC-CBI Joint Business Council (JBC), with the support of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), commissioned an all-island survey of 600 companies (300 NI and 300 Republic of Ireland) to assess business attitudes to energy efficiency. The survey was first commissioned by JBC in 2008 and repeated this year to benchmark changes in attitudes and actions of companies around energy efficiency within their operations.

Julie Jordan, Director of the Joint Business Council said:

“The 2010 results highlight an increase in the percentage of companies with targets or schemes in place to improve energy efficiency - the key motivator being cost savings. Of those with a scheme in place, 73% cited success in improving energy efficiency or reducing their carbon impact. The main barriers to investing in energy efficiency are cost of technology and lack of financial incentives.”

The results showed that, on average, almost three quarters (72%) of businesses across island either already have taken or plan to take action over the next three years to improve energy efficiency within their companies.  For almost all (93%) of those surveyed, cost savings was cited as the key driver to invest in energy efficiency, with related incentives such as financial assistance also being cited as critical.

Declan Meally, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland said:
“There is still huge potential out there for SME’s to make cost savings through energy-efficiency. Most of these savings can be achieved through low-cost activities and our experience shows that businesses that have engaged with SEAI programmes, can easily achieve savings of up to 20% of their energy costs by low cost behavioural changes”

The survey found that a third of business across the island had already conducted an internal energy audit within the last 3 years, with this figure reaching almost 50% for medium and large energy users (defined as having energy bills of €/£100k-500k and €/£500k+ respectively).

  Almost half (46%) of all companies reported that they now had a structured scheme in place to improve their energy efficiency – a major increase since 2008, when only a third of businesses had such a scheme in place.  Again, for medium and large energy users, the figure was substantially higher with 64% and 56% respectively having a scheme in place - demonstrating the significance of energy efficiency cost savings to these companies with higher energy bills.

Of those companies which currently do not have a scheme in place, 28% stated that they have plans in place to implement a scheme within the next 3 years. Again, this figure increased (to 40%) for companies with higher expenditure on energy bills and those in manufacturing rather than services.

Jordan added:

“Company performance on energy efficiency remains a key priority for business on this island – primarily driven by cost concerns.  Our survey found that energy efficiency was rated as a medium or top priority by up to 84% of companies – highest for those which are medium/large energy users and within the manufacturing sector.

Actions that companies have taken range from reducing business travel to fine tuning their supply chain as well as efficiencies applied to production processes – the latter of which demonstrates the potential for smart metering within industry – with two thirds (63%) of businesses citing an interest in smart metering.  The survey also highlights that over a third of businesses are interested in generating energy on site.”

Both the SEAI in the Republic of Ireland, who supported the study, and the Carbon Trust in Northern Ireland emerged very favourably in terms of business awareness of the organizations and rating of their performance.

Renewables survey 2010

IBEC
Special EU Programmes Body
EU
CBI