|
Written by Barry Campbell
Friday, 18 May 2007
Results from a first-time survey of North American business leaders indicate they expect energy prices to continue to rise, and plan to invest in energy efficiency measures to help fight rising costs. Despite the trend toward sustainability, executives cite a desire to decrease energy expenditures within their organizations as a greater motivator than environmental responsibility.
Those are some of the findings of the research commissioned by Johnson Controls, Inc., a global leader in creating smart environments. The Johnson Controls Energy Efficiency Indicator research identified individuals from a wide range of facilities and locations who were decision-makers for energy management issues within organizations and asked how they were responding to rising energy costs, defined as electricity and natural gas costs. Members from the International Facility Management Association were included as survey respondents. The research was conducted in March and released on May 17. Johnson Controls plans to repeat the Energy Efficiency Indicator research annually. While a complete release is available at www.esmagazine.com here are some of the more detailed results from the survey:
Asked about motivation for investing in energy efficiency:
- 6% say their motivation was entirely costs savings
- 46% say it is mostly related or somewhat related to costs savings
- 35% say the two factors are equal motivators
- 12% say environmental responsibility was somewhat more or mostly the motivator
- 1% say the motivation was 100% environmental responsibility
Larger facilities (500,000 sq ft or more):
- Spend an average of 12% of their budget on energy, compared to an average of 7% for those with less than 100,000 sq ft
- More plan to invest in energy efficiency measures
- 80% out of capital budgets and 80% out of operating budgets compared to the survey's average of about 60%
- 26% say they are also tolerating a longer payback period on those investments compared to five years ago versus 16% of
Organizations with between 100,000 and 500,000 sq ft
Overall
- About 50% of the executives say they plan to tap both operating and capital budgets for energy efficiency improvements
- 23% of the executives say they are paying "a lot more" attention to energy efficiency today versus a year ago
- 39% say they are paying "a little more" attention to energy efficiency than a year ago
- There were remarkably few significant differences across regions
- Decision makers across all regions expect energy prices to increase over the next year but those in the South are the most pessimistic. In the South, the average expectation is for an increase of more than 15%, compared to about 13% in other regions.
Additional types of energy efficiency investments:
- 28% have installed energy-saving glass in windows
- 13% have re-roofed with white shingles to reduce heat gain
- 11% have captured waste energy generated by operations
- 10% self-generate power to use during demand peaks
|
|
