As the digital landscape expands, so does the attack surface for potential cybe....
Change Starts Small!
Key elements in every business, small or large, are the cost of the energy they use and on the other side the energy consumption, affecting energy resources, pollution, climate change, etc. However, it is often believed that only big corporations can afford and benefit from energy saving systems, since these would be a burden for small businesses.
According to U.S. Department of energy, small businesses account for almost half of the total of the energy consumption. Thus, making the need for energy saving initiatives very significant and not something to overlook.
Energy costs hold a major share of small businesses’ overall costs, and due to the unpredictable prices of energy it is evermore critical to manage these costs, whether through technology, changes in organization’s behavior or management system. Thus, adverse believes should be eliminated and the sooner the better they should start doing something in this direction.
On the other hand, the largest share of energy consumption in small businesses is attributed mainly to transportation (delivery, supply) and buildings (cooling /heating and other energy-fueled maintenance supplies). It is important that they apply best practices towards energy consumption, and not only focus on this aspect but develop an effective system that reduces their consumption, energy costs and at the same time help them achieve the business objectives in a more efficient way.
Some of the obstacles believed that exist for small businesses to pursue energy efficiency measures are commonly referred to the necessity of extra resources and to the investment of significant amounts of money which can be more easily obtained by big corporates. Furthermore, SME lacks on the technical know-how in order to find better solutions in energy cost cutting.
Opposing these believes, it is often argued that implementing energy saving systems in small businesses is more convenient than in big corporations, since small businesses have fewer chains of command, the changes and improvements are easily manageable, and there is less bureaucracy, less energy saving training cost, etc.. In addition, Robert Steele, ISO Secretary-General stated that “Energy is no longer a technical issue, but a management issue with an impact on the bottom line and the time to address this issue is now”1.
All the obstacles believed to prevent small businesses to save on energy and on the other hand the convenience to do so can be addressed by implementing an energy management system (EnMS) based on ISO 50001. This standard enables an organization to follow requirements that aim to establish, implement, maintain and improve an energy management system, whose purpose is to enable an organization to follow a systematic approach in achieving continual improvement of energy performance, including energy efficiency, energy security, energy use and consumption2. In brief, it helps small businesses to save money, to play an important role in energy resource conservation and climate change.
A pilot implementation of EnMS sponsored by the US Council for Energy Efficient Manufacturing and the US Department of Energy showed that a small business achieved energy savings of 14.9 % with zero capital investment.
PECB is a certification body for persons on a wide range of professional standards. Among other standard certifications, it offers certification against ISO 50001.
ISO Standards and Professional Trainings offered by PECB:
- Certified Lead Implementer (5 days)
- Certified Lead Auditor (5 days)
- Certified Foundation (2 days)
- ISO Introduction (1 day)
Arta Hashimi is a Transport, Telecommunication and Energy (TTE) Course Development Manager at PECB. She is in charge of developing and maintaining courses related to Transport, Telecommunication and Energy. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact: training@pecb.com.
For further information, please click here.
1ISO 50001 energy management standard impacts the bottom line, www.iso.org 2ISO 50001 – Energy management, www.iso.org