SPONSORED BY
Mackenzie revealed that there might even be a the CRC regulations as “a sledgehammer to
separate league table for companies that are crack a nut”.
using renewable energy, “so that you can rank “You have to work harder for your
businesses either purely on energy efficiency, plaudits, don't you?” offered Simon Harris,
or overall carbon”. manager of the environment and sustainabili-
Front of mind for Alex Pitman, group ener- ty team at the Royal Bank of Scotland. “There
gy efficiency manager for the Co-Operative is more chance of your reputation being dam-
Estates, is budgeting for the scheme. He asked aged if you do not join to the fullest extent.”
whether the Government had done any mod- Ceeney added that it doesn’t matter how or
elling of the likely payback periods for those why firms engage in the CRC, as long as they
engaged in the CRC. “In our model, when we do so. “Plus, it is fairer than just whacking
reach 2012, our energy efficiency savings are another tax on energy. This way, firms have a
declining, and the CRC savings do become choice about how they approach it.”
significant in relation to energy efficiency. Before the session wound up, Hilton
After that, it becomes more uncertain because Hotels’ director of property and utilities,
who knows what price carbon will be.” Andrew Forte, was keen to get back to
Currently, Pitman is making efficiency metrics. “We have different types of hotels.
savings of about 6% or 7% a year, “but we We have the owned and leased, we have the
will not keep that up for very long”. “Once managed and we have the franchises.
we get down to 2% or 3%, say by the fifth “In the hotel industry, a franchise property
year of the scheme, then CRCs in my model will generate one tenth in terms of revenues
will become the same magnitude as the energy for the franchisor, compared with a managed
efficiency savings,” he said. property. So, every year we add on ten
DECC has not done any modelling yet, franchised properties, and each one is adding
because it has no data to work with. But to the whole group the same energy
Mackenzie argued that the payback in energy consumption as a fully-managed property
efficiency savings will “far outweigh any sav-
APRIL 2010 WILL COME
would. In terms of energy versus revenue, that
ings that you get from the CRC,” based on
ROUND VERY SOON.
has a big impact.”
the fact that the average electricity bill is 1% It is a big issue for a number of organisa-
of a firm’s turnover, and the most organisa- FIRMS NEED TO START tions, but Mackenzie responded by saying: “If
tions can get out of the CRC will be 10% of
COLLECTING DATA
we pinned this on the franchisee, an awful lot
that – 0.1% of a company’s turnover. “The of them would not qualify, and there would
gain you will make from the energy efficiency NOW AND DEVISING AN be a significant amount of buildings in the
savings will be ten, 100, or 1,000 times
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
non-domestic sector who would not be
greater,” he added. “I cannot believe that the covered.” By pinning the responsibility on the
CRC will be the driver that makes your STRATEGY landlord there is now a “commercial incentive
investment decision or not.”
LAURENT MINEAU
to sort out your franchisees’ energy use”, he
EDF Energy’s Mineau added: “According added. “I am not saying it is easy.”
to our own experience, you can achieve a huge
EDF ENERGY
And that last comment reflects the com-
amount of savings with a payback of less than plexity of the CRC Energy Efficiency
three years. If you consider that threshold, Scheme. But its complexity is matched by its
you can definitely do something.” cheque. Is there any driver to change that potential for affecting real change in UK
But what about companies that refuse to position, to change the mindset or the hearts business and by next April the wheels will be
play the carbon trading game. Parker raised an and minds?” he asked. set in motion as the scheme helps to abate
interesting point when he described his “If you just want to manage the risk and more than four million tonnes of carbon diox-
employer as an organisation “prepared to take hand the money to someone else, fine. That is ide emissions every year.
the monetary hit”. “We fill in all the right legitimate business,” replied Mackenzie.
forms, we report, we buy our allowances, but Fry said that he thought the approach This Round Table Debate was supported by
as an organisation we are prepared to take the Parker described would be rare. “Most people engineering and environmental consultancy,
monetary hit – so even though we might be see this as a business opportunity to raise Parsons Brinckerhoff (pbworld.com/ea) and
towards the bottom of the league table and their profile,” he said. But Wagland disagreed, energy services business, EDF Energy
suffering penalties, we will just write the describing the league table as “the carrot” and (edfenergy.com/largebusiness)
22 November/December 2009 ❘ Sustainable Business
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