Doors opening: the technology already exists to help make the UK’s transition to a low-carbon economy as painless as possible


ciencies and cutting carbon in the business. “We’ve had quite a sharp bounce back from recession so everybody is focused on getting their production out and they are not prioritis- ing changing out their assets and making them more energy efficient,” says Maier. He tells of a recent customer in the manufac- turing sector, so concerned with keeping its production line running that when its 20-year- old motors needed maintenance, it overlooked the concept of replacing them with much more energy efficient ones, and rather sent them off to the repair shop. “The priority of the engineer on the shop floor is to keep the production line run- ning and the quickest way he knows how to do that is to ship the motors to be mended and then get them back again,” he says.


“But if that company changed that asset out and put energy efficient motors in instead, the payback of that investment versus the money they’ve just spent on repairs is probably less than three months. At the moment, companies haven’t got that mindset.”


So, how do you change the mindset? Changing the KPIs of those that run production processes would be a start, says Maier. “These guys are measured on whether they’ve got their production out today. I’m not suggest-


ing that shouldn’t be a KPI but it should also be whether things have been done in the most sus- tainable manner.”


Educating businesses is one thing. But affecting change is another barrier altogether. Especially when the asset that needs altering – the ageing building stock – is largely not owned by the occupying businesses. Or that the current approach to buildings is centred on capital costs as opposed to the lifecycle cost of running them. This is an area where a bit of extra regulation would be helpful, says Maier. “We need an established tiered approach to building ratings for energy efficiency, so that the value of the asset that is built to the higher standards is worth significantly more than one that isn’t.


“It would mean that the builder, who usually


The challenge is to convince companies that the business case for a sustainable approach adds up, says Juergen Maier, managing director of the Industry Sector at Siemens UK


doesn’t care about this stuff because he passes on the cost of running energy inefficient buildings, has an incentive to build to a high spec.” The next three years are going to provide a serious wake-up call for these businesses. The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency scheme kicked off this April and the pressure on the 5,000 companies involved in it is set to increase as league tables are published and carbon permits are auctioned. And energy prices are only going to go in one direction: up. It’s up to companies to wake up to the risks and oppor- tunities of driving their energy use down. “The incentives are there. You can get tax breaks for putting in energy efficient invest- ments, like high efficiency motors. I bet the guy on the shop floor doesn’t even know that.” For Maier, the policy instruments are in place and the Government has “done a good job to both incentivise and regulate carbon reduction”. But businesses aren’t “living it”, he says. “They probably aren’t yet realising how much this is going to cost them if they don’t get their act together. But businesses are going to see that energy costs are a much bigger part of your expenses in the next three years.


“And with the technology available, the business case is stacking up.”


Sustainable Business | Green works | September 2010 | 03


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