Christopher Russell has written a good article on the obstacles to energy efficiency investment which organizations face – his list of 11 are the following:
- Misunderstanding the concept of energy efficiency
- Lack of awareness by staff and management
- Fear
- Complacency and denial
- Lack of cross-departmental cooperation
- Outdated accounting techniques
- Improper energy costs allocation
- Restrictive budget and fiscal criteria
- Lack of management accountability
- Lack of resources
- Business culture
Which ones did he miss?
I’d add (12) understanding and awareness of government and utility incentives (we see that 60%+ of projects that get funded involve an incentive) and (13) the ability to package and sell projects internally (not always a strength of the operations or facilities team).
Note that technology is NOT one here. Plenty of existing technology and behavior changes (like no-cost load shifting) are available today to make changes.
On the positive side, we see the most promising changes in companies that adopt corporate level energy reduction goals (absolute or intensity), have a positive experience with demand response, and face questions on energy efficiency from top customers and on RFPs.
[Thanks to Nick Balster, Corporate Energy Manager, Precision Castparts, for alerting us to this article]
