Survey Says: Half of Facility Managers Don't Know How Much Energy They Use

Johnson Controls recently released the second edition in what is apparently an annual series of North American energy efficiency market surveys. While I have a few bones to pick with the methodology, it's generally a useful snapshot of business sector's intentions for adopting energy solutions. You can download the whole survey, if you like. My scan of it reveals these highlights:

1. 49% of respondents don't know their company's annual energy spend (p. 12). This is downright scary. To be fair, I'll bet that most respondents had site-specific responsibilities, and were not in a position to know company-wide figures.

2. Almost 60% expect to use capital funds to make improvements this year; just over 60% expect to use operating funds for the same purpose (pp. 12-13).

3. 57% of respondents see energy efficiency as "extremely/very important," up from 51% in last year's survey (p. 16).

4. 60% of respondents believe that climate change is at least "somewhat significant" in driving their pursuit of energy efficiency (p. 20).

5. 72% are boosting staff awareness related to efficient energy use, up from 70% last year. However, rates for energy management/efficiency training and hiring of energy consultants are down from the the previous year (p. 23).

There's also some data on preferred payback measures, frequency of energy performance reviews, and attitudes about incentives and anticipated energy policy.