ESOS is the Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme currently being developed in the UK by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to meet the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU).

Article 8 of this directive requires all Member States to introduce a regime of regular energy audits for ‘large enterprises’ to promote the uptake of cost-effective energy efficiency measures. These audits must be completed by 5 December 2015, and then every four years.

‘Large enterprises’ are organisations with more than 250 staff or sales over €50 million per year. SMEs will also be able to participate voluntarily. The scheme excludes public bodies.

The audit must be carried out by an ESOS approved assessor and must:

• provide a review of the total energy use and relative energy intensity of your organisation
• include identification and quantification of cost-effective energy savings opportunities

Identifying energy saving opportunities now is a good starting point, securing cost and environmental savings for your company while getting ahead of the ESOS requirements. Small behavioral changes add up to big savings especially when multiplied across a large organisation.

Employee engagement will be essential in implementing energy efficiency measures. One of the main barriers to employee engagement can often be cynicism in the workplace. Organisations that have had success introducing energy efficiency initiatives have found that this can be avoided if employees are engaged at the beginning of any programme and if leadership of the initiative is visible, sustained and committed.

Communication, education and understanding throughout the whole organisation will certainly be key to getting everyone on board. New digital and mobile platforms are making comprehensive and effective programs not only easier to roll-out and scale, but also highly measurable and defensible from an ROI standpoint.

The Department of Energy & Climate Change carried out their own research into whether user engagement can save energy & carbon at work via CarbonCulture at DECC project. The methods employed and outcome was very interesting and a report on this, providing much food for thought and practical advice can be downloaded here.

Judy Hadden is a director of Environmental Risk Solutions and co-author of the Cardinus Environmental Essentials e-learning course. For more information regarding Environmental Essentials click here or to trial the software free of charge with 5% of your workforce complete the contact us form here.