Ellen Salazar, an ESOS lead assessor at TEAM, explains why businesses should be implementing the recommendations of their ESOS audit.

ESOS compliance is mandatory, however implementing the recommendations of an ESOS audit is not. But companies that stand to truly benefit from ESOS are those prepared to go the distance by fully adopting and embracing their recommendations.

Your ESOS assessment report provides you with a comprehensive list of your energy saving opportunities. It gives you all the necessary information to prioritise and appraise opportunities in a structured way, and rank these according to criteria that make the most sense for your business.

Reducing your energy consumption

We all know that it’s important to save energy, we live in an age where energy is an absolute necessity to maintain our lifestyle and it goes beyond the basics of providing comfort and convenience. But despite this many organisations don’t have a clear understanding of their energy uses and complying with ESOS regulations has been an eye opener for some.

Reducing your energy costs is one of the most straightforward ways for your business to improve its bottom line, making your organisation immediately more competitive. On average a business can reduce its annual costs by 20% through improving energy efficiency and energy management.

It’s important to note that becoming more energy efficient does not necessarily mean investing a lot. Many worthwhile energy saving opportunities have low or no costs, such as installing or optimising lighting or heating control systems, changing the way you measure and monitor energy consumption, or spending time engaging with staff to change their behaviour.

Saving you money

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) figures suggest any action taken as a result of findings from ESOS audits could lead to an average 0.7% saving per enterprise, which is expected to provide a net positive benefit to the UK of between £800 million and £3billion, with a central estimate of £1.9 billion between 2015 and 2030.

ESOS is the latest in a range of schemes designed to reduce energy usage and its success depends on whether the boards of the nation’s largest organisations decided to act upon the recommendations outlined in their audits.

So, what next?

Do you believe that your ESOS audit has identified all savings opportunities? Do you have a plan to implement the opportunities identified? Do you require an energy specialist to review your energy audit results and go through the options available to you?

TEAM can ensure that you maximise the benefits of the scheme and go through the most cost effective options available to you. Read more about TEAM’s ESOS Services on the website.

The next ESOS compliance deadline will be the 5th December 2019 but my advice would be to get ahead – implement your energy saving recommendations now. In doing so, businesses will save money and reduce their carbon emissions sooner than round two of ESOS.