#87 Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Business Strategies with guest Kit Oung

We’re diving further into sustainability and best practices today as Mel is joined by Kit Oung who is a leading energy consultant with a wealth of experience spanning the last 25 years.

Kit is an energy and resource efficiency practitioner, consultant, trainer, and author on the subject of energy and resource efficiency; operational excellence, and triple bottom line.

Notable engagements include: designing regulations in the UK (energy and climate change regulations); Sharjah, UAE (mandatory Health and Safety awareness), and Singapore (waste regulation); drafting guidebooks on integrated management systems (ISO), energy efficiency (UNEP), ISO 50001 (ISO/UNIDO) and promoting of good governance in energy, environment, and health safety in India, Zambia, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Nigeria.

Kit is the author of Energy Management in Business: The Manager’s Guide to Maximising and Sustaining Energy Reduction (Gower, 2013), and coauthor of Best Practices and Case Studies for Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement (UNEP, 2016). He also assisted in the technical review of ISO 50001: Energy management systems – A practical guide for SMEs (ISO, 2015).

Kit serves on IChemE’s Congress, IChemE’s Energy Community of Practice, IChemE’s annual sustainability awards judging panel, UNIDO’s global energy management leadership awards judging panel, and take part in developing National, Regional and International standards. He chaired ISO 14002-2 (current), ISO 50002 (current), PAS51215, EN16247-3, and participated in the development of ISO 14001 series, ISO 50001 series, and EN16247 series of standards.

Today, we’re looking at how to make energy sustainability strategies actionable, what the drivers for energy sustainability are, and how we can gain and maintain management commitment in sustainable energy practices. We’ll also have a sneak peak into Kit’s upcoming book: People, Planet, Profit: Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Business Strategies (Which you can pre-order! Link available under Resources)

You’ll learn

• The importance of leaders, managers and engineers all playing their parts in sustainability strategies.
• What needs to be in place for sustainability strategies to be actionable.
• How the drivers for energy sustainability differ in different geographical locations.
• The extent of the destruction of our forests and seas and why we aren’t doing anything about it.
• Different low cost fuel saving technologies.
• How to gain and maintain management commitment in sustainable energy practices.
• How to break down your energy consumption and make it visible
• The psychological benefits of celebration.

Resources

• Pre-order: People, Planet, Profit: Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Business Strategies
• Start with Why
• Get in contact with Kit Oung

In this episode, we talk about:

[02:12] Kit’s experience in working with energy management and sustainable initiatives.

[05:48] Key aspects that need to be in place for a sustainability strategy to be actionable and have real influence on a company’s products and services.

[10:40] A case study of how British Airways has integrated sustainability into their business structure.

[15:15] The main drivers of sustainability practices in the Middle East.

[17:12] What inspired Kit to write his new book – People, Planet, Profit: Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Business Strategies

[21:20] Low cost technologies businesses can use to reduce their energy consumption.

[23:48] The three elements you need in an organisation to effectively control your energy consumption.

[25:40] How to gain and maintain management commitment.

[28:30] The importance of understanding every aspect of an organisation’s processes and the hidden costs around waste materials.

[32:34] The importance of measuring consumption of resources and benchmarking.

[34:16] How to break down your energy consumption and make it visible.

[38:26] How external providers can help companies with the technical aspect of the data.

[40:48] How to break down implementation barriers in companies.

[47:03] The psychological benefits of celebration.

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