How can an organization be environmentally sustainable and competitive in such a harsh economic world? This is the quandary facing organizations as they try and plan for the future. In a recent landmark study by global research company Accenture, 93% of CEOs determined that sustainability issues were critical to the company’s future success. This is a very important finding, conducted as part of the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken in this sector.
While the majority of organizations questioned by Accenture may have been larger than the average, the principle remains. Companies must do everything that they can, not only to be environmentally sustainable, but perhaps as importantly, to show to the rest of the world that they are making such efforts. Almost 3/4 of the CEOs surveyed cited the issues of reputation and brand management as a key driver in the decision-making.
Every company seeking to become balanced in terms of environmental responsibility and competition must realize that ultimate asset performance is critical. While sustainability encompasses many areas including waste, water and labor, the appropriate management of assets represents the greatest area for gain.
When an individual asset’s energy appetite is revealed and baselined, its future performance can be accurately revealed. In the past, while assets may have undergone a periodic maintenance schedule, often problems were only revealed when failure was apparent or imminent. If each asset can be monitored on a real-time basis and its actual energy consumption determined, performance against benchmark can almost always give us an indication of impending problems.
The dilemma facing management is significant. It will undoubtedly have many banks of long-term assets and how can it incorporate these new measurement metrics into procurement and installation strategies? Will it be necessary to write off all assets to zero and “reintroduce” them into the inventory? Maybe this is the way to pursue true sustainability from now on?
Monitoring and prevention are the buzzwords for the corporation. We cannot rely on recording energy at a meter level if we are to reveal the true value of each asset. Every one of the thousands of assets must be looked at. Individual management of each asset is so important if we are to really safeguard brand and reputation here.
Carbon should not be viewed as a threat or a liability. Rather, it should be viewed as the catalyst to push the organization to reveal its absolute asset productivity, probably for the first time. Asset performance, when optimized, would reduce an organization’s energy liabilities and could reveal additional profits.
IT departments will become increasingly focused on corporate social responsibility and the need to use gathered asset performance data to drive business decision-making. Sustainability will become the core fabric of the organization.
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