Dive Brief:
- A new study from Deloitte finds 55% of large U.S. businesses generate some portion of their electricity on site, representing a growing trend across the last few years.
- Almost 80% of the sampled businesses see reducing electricity costs as critical to maintaining a competitive advantage, and most have now put in place formal energy reduction goals.
- It is the fifth iteration of Deloitte's resources study, which annually looks at how businesses are evolving their approach to energy, and the firm said this year marks a significant step towards more “thoughtful, deliberate energy consumption.”
Dive Insight:
Deloitte's new research highlights a number of trends evolving in corporate America – the push to use less power, generate your own and allocate more capital to energy management. But it all likely stems from one simple number: 79% of the survey respondents said they view reducing power costs “as essential to creating and maintaining a competitive advantage.”
The study, conducted through online interviews with 600 companies having more than 250 employees, revealed 57% had formally adopted plans to reduce their energy consumption, a quick rise from 46% in the 2014 study.
Some 55% now generate a portion of their own electricity as well, up from 44% the previous year, and 33% in 2013. That trend is led by technology, media and healthcare companies, the report found.
13% of the on-site generators got their electricity from wind or solar, and the consultancy expects that to increase to 16% by 2017. 9% of the on-site generators sourced their power from fuel cells, and the same number got it from combined heat and power (CHP). The remaining generators sourced from small fossil generation, such as diesel generators.
“Based on the results of the 2014 study, we found that energy was becoming a core business competency,” Deloitte said in the report. “The findings of the 2015 study not only corroborate that result but further suggest a tipping point has been passed: thoughtful, deliberate energy consumption has permeated the business psyche, and companies, by and large, now consider energy management to be an essential aspect of corporate strategy.”
