96 per cent of those firms with no awareness of ESOS believe that the UK Government should do more to increase awareness of ESOS.
My team [working with survey firm Vanson Bourne] carried out a survey during November 2014 into awareness of the UK Government’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme [ESOS], the new mandatory energy assessment scheme.
The results are fascinating with awareness of ESOS at just 33 per cent in large businesses, and as low as 24 per cent in firms operating in the retail, distribution and transport sector. The survey of 100 businesses employing over 1000 UK employees shows an extraordinary number of UK firms are at risk of a £50,000 fine and being publicly named for non-compliance.
Understandably, 96 per cent of those firms with no awareness of ESOS believe that, considering both the December 2015 deadline and financial penalties involved, the UK Government should do more to increase awareness of ESOS. Desire to see the Government act was highest amongst firms in the retail, distribution and transport sectors, with 100 per cent of respondents suggesting the Government needs to do more to raise awareness of the scheme.
Introduced by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), ESOS mandates that companies need to identify the source of 90 per cent of the power usage within their organisation and then make recommendations that can be implemented to reduce that power consumption. There will be fines and a public register of non-compliant firms. The regulation came into law in July 2014; the deadline to report energy usage is 5th December 2015.
I don’t think it takes any stretch of the imagination to work out where a significant amount of energy usage comes from – buildings, transport, lighting, along with the massive fleet of PCs, laptops and IT hardware within most big organisations. ESOS is going to make the reporting of energy very visible within a company. If not already in place, IT will need to procure the sort of software that will enable full and thorough reporting of energy by IT infrastructure and devices.
Key research findings:
- Respondent’s awareness of the ESOS is just 33 per cent and as low as 24 per cent in firms with more than 3000 employees. Firms employing 1000-3000 have marginally better awareness with levels of 42 per cent.
- Awareness of ESOS is lowest in retail, distribution and transport firms with only 24 per cent of respondents aware of the regulation. Even the sector with greatest awareness of ESOS, the financial services industry, achieves only 40 per cent awareness.
- Despite the contribution of IT energy to firms’ overall energy consumption and, the necessity of firms to report against energy consumption in order to comply with ESOS, it is very surprising to see only 19 per cent of firms know the energy in kWh that IT consumes in their organisation.
- Awareness of IT energy consumption was lowest in firms employing more than 3000+ people [14 per cent] and retail, distribution and transport firms [8 per cent].
To learn more about the survey results, ESOS, ESOS assessments and how to reduce IT energy consumption, visit our dedicated ESOS page or leave a comment below.
