Be More Green: innovating to improve energy efficiency

For the final event in the Be More Green series, the CBI hosted an expert panel discussion on the innovative ways businesses are improving their energy efficiency. Against the backdrop of the energy crisis and increasing cost of doing business, the discussion was timely in reiterating the importance of businesses reducing their energy consumption, with suggestions for how they might do this.

Our panellists

• Alice Williams, VP Strategy and Commercial Excellence, Schneider Electric UK and Ireland
• Rachel Fletcher, Director Regulation and Economics, Octopus Energy
• Lars Fabricius, Managing Director, SAV Systems

Discover the five key takeaways from the discussion

1. The cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use

60% of energy consumed is lost through poor efficiency. In a time of soaring energy bills and rising cost of doing business, reducing energy consumption is the surest way to cut costs, and reduce carbon emissions. Moreover, reducing energy usage and decarbonising should make businesses more resilient to future shocks.

Beyond individual businesses, Schneider Electric's Vice President of Strategy and Commerical Excellence, Alice Williams, highlighted that globally we will be consuming 40 times more energy by the end of the century if we continue to increase consumption at the current rate. Whilst switching to renewables will be part of the solution, the panellists noted that achieving that level of energy supply with renewables alone will be a significant challenge. There will need to be a seismic change in the way we operate.

2. You can’t manage what you can’t measure

Our panellists agreed that the first step for every business looking to increase their energy efficiency is to understand their energy usage to identify where reductions can be made. Lars Fabricius, Managing Director of SAV systems stated that the first step is looking at their energy usage and comparing this to use by similar organisations or those with similar buildings and facilities, and ideally the ‘best in class’. If your building is using a lot more energy than the best in class, there may be small changes you can make to reduce energy consumption. And there are businesses and platforms that can help with this.

3. Tech and innovation can be the key to reducing your energy consumption

Adoption of technology is a core part of how many businesses are reducing their energy usage.

Alice Williams discussed several tools that can support digitisation and therefore understanding of energy usage, supporting businesses to identify their biggest areas of energy use and opportunities for efficiency. Internet of Things (IoT) technology can also optimise energy usage through automation – for example, by turning off lights in buildings that are not in use. And Octopus Energy have created ‘Kraken’ a platform that uses data and machine learning to optimise customer energy usage.

Beyond existing technologies our panellists discussed the importance of continued innovation to support businesses to further reduce energy consumption. For example, Schneider Electric citied their work on digital twins to support the design phase when constructing and renovating buildings, again highlighting the impact digitisation can have on energy efficiency.

4. Business and government can do more together

As outlined above, the business community must take leadership in reducing their own energy use, and there are clear actions businesses can and are taking to improve their energy efficiency.  

However, this business action must also be supported by a clear, long-term vision from the government. The panellists agreed that it can be difficult to collaborate and innovate with a lack of consistent and supportive policy.

The government should work with business to build an enabling framework that incentivises investment in areas of opportunity for genuine UK strategic advantage, such as in long duration energy storage.

5. This is a systems issue

A common thread in discussions across the CBI’s Be More Green campaign has been that decarbonisation and large-scale reduction in energy consumption can only be achieved with a systems-based approach.

Our panel agreed that actors from across the landscape have to be prepared to work together to build an energy architecture that optimally fits together. Octopus Energy understands this must be a collaborative effort and already license their technology to other energy providers. Schneider Electric have been working with Veolia on converting waste to heat. And SAV systems have created the Energy Raven product to work with businesses to understand and optimise energy efficiency in their built environment. These examples illustrate that this collaboration is already happening. But to make real progress this collaboration must be accelerated to connect every part of the ecosystem.