Energy efficiency is often considered less glamorous than putting up solar panels or subscribing as an off taker to a big wind project. Yet, many businesses actually waste 30% of the energy they purchase because of older and less efficient equipment. So, improving efficiency is a win-win way for any business to quickly and easily reduce its carbon footprint. It’s good for the planet, as it burns less fossil fuel and contributes fewer emissions to the atmosphere. It’s also good for business, since using less energy means paying less on your energy bills.
However, something many people don’t realize is that energy efficiency is actually a triple win-win-win situation. That’s because using less energy is not only good for the environment and good for operational savings—it can also be a positive for utility companies.
This may seem counterintuitive, because when you install equipment such as LED lights and more efficient HVAC systems, you end up using less energy and paying your utility companies less money. But by doing so, you’re actually helping your energy provider solve a problem: being able to produce enough electricity, especially at certain times of day and year.
To keep up with the increasing demand for energy, utility companies often need to spend a lot of money on building more infrastructure to generate more energy for their customers. These are often unpopular and expensive projects such as natural gas fired generators that only work in emergencies but need many decades to pay for themselves. Environmentalists hope that batteries and better connections to renewables will replace the need for these plants in a few years. Efficiency now is the best way to bridge the time between our needs today and the technologies we all want in the future.
Another issue is that for about half the energy users in the country, their local utility is not actually producing energy, only moving it from place to place. The power plants and generating projects are owned by private companies that need guarantees long into the future before they will build a new project. So, cutting regional energy demand makes everyone’s life much easier.
“Energy efficiency can provide long-term benefits by lowering overall electricity demand,” according to EPA.gov. “Thus, reducing the need to invest in new electricity generation and transmission infrastructure.” Efficiency also helps utility companies manage risk, according to the EPA. “Energy efficiency also helps diversify utility resource portfolios and can be a hedge against uncertainty associated with fluctuating fuel prices.”
Energy efficiency is one of the best ways to support sustainability and reduce your company’s carbon footprint, all while reducing your monthly operating costs. So why don’t more companies and businesses just upgrade their energy equipment? Because it can be a major hassle, as projects are often expensive, hard to engineer, and take time away from other important projects—assuming a company even has the money in its capital budget.
When you work with Budderfly, you can get these benefits— energy efficient equipment upgrades such as LED lighting, new HVAC, refrigeration and immediate energy bill savings—at absolutely no cost. If you want to learn more about how everyone wins with energy efficiency, and how you can get instant savings, contact one of our experts.