From British Guest Blogger Indigo Swan – Energy Sustainability in Business

‘Carbon footprint’ is the undisputed energy related buzzword of the past 10 years, and businesses face a huge responsibility, with pressure from both external and internal forces to try and minimise their impact on the environment, through reducing their carbon emissions.

However, due to the current financial state, businesses are focused on making spending cuts wherever they can, meaning that ‘Green’ initiatives and projects are often put on the backburner – they are regularly seen as an expensive investment when compared to the cheaper and unsustainable option. Indigo Swan have found that many businesses will initially consider a green energy contract, but will generally opt for the brown option unless the two plans are offered at the same price, which is generally unrealistic.

A 2011 report investigating business attitudes and approaches towards energy management found that almost 40% of respondents believed that the biggest challenge in managing and controlling energy use was that it was not considered a priority by management, whilst 68% said that energy strategy is hardly ever discussed at board meetings.

In addition to this, the World Bank recently warned that governments and businesses must double or even triple investments in new clean sources of energy in order to meet UN energy sustainability goals.

In order to incentivise investment into energy generating or energy saving technology projects, Indigo Swan recommend undertaking an energy review. A review of energy usage, market activity and legislation will help to identify key areas where savings can be made, which can make the option of a green energy contract more attractive to companies.

They also recommend that these energy reviews should not be undertaken as a one off – they should be recurring in order to  ensure that their energy contract purchasing strategy is constantly up to date and efficient.

This was a guest blog, contributed by Indigo Swan, who offer an energy purchasing service which has previously helped empower 100s of businesses to find a better energy deal, while also providing a better way to manage business energy.