We’re already seeing the devastating effects of failing to maintain global warming at the 1.5 degrees, as pledged in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. In order to get this back on track we all need to consider our current energy consumption.
So, what can businesses do to manage their impact?
That’s where ISO 50001, the Standard for Energy Management, comes in! ISO 50001 can help your business to continually improve its energy performance, energy efficiency, energy use and energy consumption. Building an energy management system will ultimately help you to understand, monitor and measure your use of energy.
Today Darren Morrow, Senior Isologist here at Blackmores, joins us to share his top 5 top tips for ISO 50001 Implementation.
You’ll learn
- What is ISO 50001?
- 5 top tips for Implementing and Energy Management System
Resources
In this episode, we talk about:
[00:52] We have a more detailed walkthrough of ISO 50001 Implementation available in our steps to success podcast series, which are episodes: 84, 85 and 88
[01:05] What is ISO 50001? ISO 50001 is all about continually improving energy performance, energy efficiency, energy use and energy consumption. By Implementing an energy management system, you will be able to fully understand and monitor and measure your use of energy. Like most other ISO’s, continual improvement is at the heart of ISO 50001, and It’s also based on the Annex SL format. So, it shares some similarities with Standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. If you’ve got ISO 14001, you’re already half-way there!
[01:40] ISO 50001 and ESOS – ISO 50001 can also help you comply with ESOS (The Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme). If you’d like to learn more about that, listen to episode 138.
[02:50] Tip 1 – Top Management commitment and allocation of resources: This is vital, as the reason for implementation, management, requirements and aims along with expectations of everyone within the business for their support, is clearly demonstrated and communicated from the top down.
With an energy management system, part of this commitment includes making sure suitable resources are made available, this includes:
- People – For implementation, maintenance and improvement of the systems, including the means of gathering and reporting data.
- Financial support – There will be times where investment will be required. Ensuring existing equipment maintenance and servicing undertaken as required to maintain efficiency.
Allocate clear responsibilities for individuals e.g. gathering data such as meter readings, fuel usage, so that this is done consistently and the data is not only available but accurate.
[04:14] Tip 2 – Data: For data collection we need to understand certain things, an Energy review will support the identification of energy sources, identify and understand energy use and determine clear performance monitoring and indicators, leading to the determination of the data required. Some key considerations include:
- Identify sources of energy and your energy consumption from the energy review
- The quality, precision and accuracy of the data collected needs to be considered and monitored if measuring / monitoring results are to be meaningful.
- Data collection frequency should be determined and maintained to support the overall statistical analysis.
Finally, set goals and targets for improvement (EnPIs) – this can be in overall energy consumption, specific equipment improvements, other ratios measures such as consumption per person of consumption vs revenue.
[06:10] Tip 3 – Align and Integrate with other business management systems, goals and strategies: Sounds simple, but not always undertaken effectively, when implementing an energy management system consider any other management system that is already in place and look at any similarities, any elements that already exist that can be tweaked or expanded – this way, it is treated as ‘business as usual’.
[07:20] Tip 4 – Communication, training and awareness: Communication plays a key role in any system, make sure you:
- Communicate requirements, goals and commitments, and objectives or targets.
- Keep staff informed of what’s going on as their involvement and direct actions support achieving goals and targets, along with identifying improvements.
- Assign responsibilities, create a team and/or assign a champion – This supports the effectiveness of data collection, and also can increase motivation and encourage identification of energy saving opportunities
Energy savings require the commitment of the whole workforce. There ideally needs to be a champion in the organization who can drive change and savings.
[08:41] Tip 5 – Record opportunities for improving energy efficiency: Any and all identified opportunities can be, and should be logged and monitored for suitability, no matter how ‘far out there’ these may be.
Some may not be appropriate or feasible immediately, or in the short term, possibly due to costs / investment requirements. However, once an opportunity is logged, it can be monitored, assigned financial support and be planned for Implementation.
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