Energy consumption has become a key performance indicator for any organization.
If you can save energy, you can also save operational costs, as well as reduce your company’s greenhouse gas emissions, take greater care for natural resources and contribute to sustainable development through positive and tangible actions.
If you work in any energy intense industry (chemical, cement, paper, ceramic, glass, lime, iron alloys and minerals, chlor-alkali, steel, metals, clay), and other sectors covered by the Emission Trading Scheme (under the Kyoto Protocol’s Emissions Trading Scheme, or the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, which put a cap on carbon dioxide emissions and create a market and price for carbon allowances), you can help your organization achieve significant improvement in energy consumption.
As a CEO, C-Level Executive, or Senior Manager, you can advise your company to implement energy efficiency best practices (identifying where energy is used, wasted and saved for the most effect), optimize energy resources and increase usage of renewable energy, instead of using a large percentage of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas for the industrial production.
That’s why defining and implementing an effective policy, strategy and framework for the systematic management of energy resources is crucial for business success.
To help your organization reduce GHGs emissions, and benefit from possible governmental incentives, you can start establishing an Energy Management System (EnMS), as well as enhancing energy efficiency to cut costs and reduce air emissions, by providing your company with a tangible and measurable, competitive advantage at the same time.
Depending on the organization’s requirements, and key factors, including company’s size, scope of its energy management, nature of its activities and products, or services, and its local, or global, carbon footprint, to establish your company’s best energy management framework you can choose between two Energy Management Systems Standards:
1) British Standard BS EN 16001:2009 and
2) New International Standard ISO 50001:2011 (published June 15th).
Who is an Energy Management System (EnMS) for?
BS EN 16001:2009 and new ISO 50001:2011 are suitable for any organization, whatever the size, industry or geographical location. It is very important to have an EnSM in place, if your company operates in an energy intensive industry (one of the many mentioned above), or in one sector facing GHGs emissions legislation.
A comparison between BS EN 16001:2009 and new ISO 50001:2011
BS EN 16001:2009 is the latest best practice at European level in building energy management systems, upon existing different national standards and initiatives.
This standard specifies the requirements of an EnMS in order to enable organizations to develop and implement an energy policy, identify significant areas of energy consumption, establish measurable objectives and targets, as well as create an action plan, which complies with legal specifications on the use of energy resources.
Although the BS EN 16001 standard does not specify any particular performance criteria about energy management, it provides a framework to enable a systematic approach for continuous improvement of energy efficiency and sustainable use of energy resources. Certifying an organization with EN 16001 will help adopt ISO 50001.
ISO 50001:2011 is the standard for energy management at the international level. Due to be released at the end of 2011, the publication of ISO 50001 has been anticipated to affect up to 60% of the world’s energy consumption.
The standard specifies the organization’s requirements to establish, implement, maintain and improve an Energy Management System (EnMS), as well as allow organizations to take an organized approach for continual improvement of energy performance.
The aim of this new standard is to establish an international framework to help manage the energy supply, uses and consumption of industrial, commercial, or institutional organizations, including measurement, documentation and reporting, as well as design and procurement practices for energy-using equipment, systems and processes.
ISO 50001:2011 applies to any energy use related issue, and enables to establish the necessary systems and processes to improve energy performance, including energy efficiency, usage, consumption and intensity.
The implementation of this new standard should lead to reductions in energy cost, GHG emissions and other relevant environmental impacts, through the systematic management of energy resources and their usage.
Conformance with the standard will demonstrate that the organization has a sustainable energy management system, a baseline of energy use, and is committed to improving continuously its energy intensity.
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