Business fashions change quickly in the eye of a recessionary storm.

Only a few years ago, driven by a combination of soaring energy prices and watchful stakeholders, issues of carbon footprints, peak oil and green energy were both front of mind and front page of the newspapers.

But the global economic crisis saw prices drop and corporate agendas change. The long-term impacts of energy management just couldn’t compete with the short-term need to stay in business.

The question, though, is whether energy management is just a frivolous fashion (misplaced in the realpolitik of recessionary business) or a genuine source of business advantage that too many organizations have prematurely dropped?

“Every Company is an Energy Company”, a recent report from the Deloitte Center for Energy solutions, argues that the recession has forced businesses into a dangerous misunderstanding. It’s the financial crisis, not the energy crisis, that’s short-term.

“…in the annals of mankind and energy, the recent recession will be only a small blip. Before it’s onset, corporations had already become aware of the need to manage their energy use more actively and to develop sustainability strategies. The crisis merely suspended the transition from awareness to action. As economic recovery takes hold, energy P&Ls and carbon profiles will again take center stage.”

There are a few powerful issues, operating at both micro and macro levels that underpin these words, that relate to business risk. You can only expect higher global demand for energy from increasingly volatile and finite sources.

Do more with less
The authors argue that corporations need to transform their thinking from deprivation (doing less with less) to management (doing more with less). And they believe smart technology will lead the way.

“The new era is adjusting to human nature, thanks to enablers like smart technologies that do everything from helping design energy-efficient buildings to regulating every appliance in the household. In fact, the great potential in the era of clean energy and energy management is that they are deeply linked to the IT industry, which is already highly evolved.”

Green Wisdom
You can find lots of examples in the report of projects that are both sustainable and profitable. And that’s the thinking behind our GreenWise™ product: help customers run a more profitable business with lower risks.

We call it an Energy Consumption Intelligence system because it gives businesses a detailed, trackable picture of all energy use over time – by department, building, campus, city or organization. And then do something about it.

It’s intelligent because it allows businesses to understand and act on demand rather than supply. An energy platform optimized for demand shields you against the vagaries of supply and ensure profitability long after the money markets recover.

There’s nothing fashionable about sustainable business decisions.