Enterprise Carbon and Energy Management Systems Attract Sustainable Corporations
Monday, November 30th, 2009“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” — this is the way that the United Nations defines sustainability. They also go on to say that the whole process requires environmental, economic and social elements to be reconciled and therefore sustainable corporations must adopt this “triple bottom line” idea. Sustainability is an essential part of doing business these days, from any point of view.
Sustainable corporations will be accepted throughout society, while those who fail to make an effort or just simply don’t understand will be penalized. From an environmental perspective, society now expects organizations to comply or risk alienation, putting great stress on a competitive position. Enterprise carbon and energy management systems have become very important within the business infrastructure, helping to develop such a position.
It is sobering to realize that a majority of companies do not really understand their accurate cost of doing business. An enterprise carbon and energy management system can, maybe for the first time, reveal individual asset energy use and its associated efficiency. It is not good enough to assume that an asset is efficient if it is performing according to the manufacturer benchmark, as efficiency these days means energy compliance and a minimum amount of carbon emission.
Very many organizations do not know the size of their carbon footprint, let alone how actions they may take may affect their energy use and emissions. Unless they know how to change, they will not be able to make any progress. They must ensure that a considerable amount of information is available to them, through the use of tailor-made software and solutions. Whatever the size of the company and however broadly it is distributed, individual asset statistics must be correlated.
The triple bottom line approach means that carbon is becoming a very real element within the various balance sheets. Some contend that legislation will convert carbon into an actual commodity and that legislation will create market driven forces to drive down the costs of carbon emissions. It really does not matter what type of business an organization is in, sustainable corporations must be created throughout.
Recent research by AMR has shown that almost half of all businesses have no systems or plans in place to measure the carbon use and as such, are as far from being sustainable corporations as they could be. Almost 1/3 of those surveyed indicated that a lack of information, a failure to understand the processes were barriers to adoption and these organizations should investigate enterprise carbon and energy management systems at the earliest convenience.
Certain governments around the world have moved forward with stringent regulation to force the formation of sustainable corporations through trading restrictions, fines and penalties. Elsewhere, individual jurisdictions and smaller governments are taking their own raft of actions and the net result will undoubtedly be a much more highly regulated and enforced carbon market in the future.
It is important to understand that brand management must be carefully handled during this time. Reputation is difficult to gain and easy to lose and senior management should not consider creating a PR campaign or talk about their intents and wishes without ensuring that they have enterprise carbon and energy management systems in place to give them the highly accurate information upon which to base it.
Daniel Stouffer has a lot of information about enterprise carbon and energy management systems and how a visit to www.verisae.com can aid you.