The Seven Steps to Successful Industrial Energy Management

1. Top management must demonstrate its clear and durable intent to progressively improve the energy performance of the entire organization. Management should also declare amnesty and hold individuals blameless for past choices that caused energy waste.

2. Develop energy-use profiles at the facility level. Benchmark and regularly track the volume of energy that the facility “should” use. Devise simple, clear metrics for this purpose.

3. Identify and remove organizational disincentives to changing the habits and procedures that lead to energy waste. Ensure that the costs of energy use, and the benefits of increased efficiency, are distributed across all departments.

4. Establish leadership, accountabilities, and a protocol for effectively remediating lapses from optimal energy use.

5. Regularly document and communicate energy’s contribution to business performance. Use business language instead of technical language to accomplish this.

6. Seek, encourage, and reward ongoing innovation for harvesting wealth from energy use.

7. Make energy-smart criteria integral to every-day operating, engineering, and procurement decisions. If energy cost control is still perceived as a distraction, then the organization has yet to create the incentives to truly manage energy risk.

For another perspective, see The Seven Deadly Sins of Energy Cost Control.