What next for EU targets?

(Graph by the Department of Energy & Climate Change and National Statistics)

The UK’s improved environmental performance and active participation within European environmental policy debate is a result of the EU targets we have agreed to meet and, as the renewable energy graph above demonstrates, are doing well to achieve.

For many years now we’ve worked with and met packaging, WEEE and battery targets – and even with environmental measures and targets, each of these sectors has experienced new business development, increased consumer and business services and technological and industrial innovation, as well as what we see as being vitally important: resource efficiency benefits.

Supply and demand of energy

The impact of energy security and legislation aiming to change our old ways is another tool being used to persuade us to move towards more effective and controlled energy usage. You may have seen news stories about the UK energy supply being put at risk this winter due to lack of supply, for example. Drawing attention to the supply and demand of energy in this way can protect the UK from these risks by encouraging the country to conserve energy wherever possible.

Energy audits carried out by ecosurety as part of our ESOS compliance service have shone a light on energy consumption via data analysis;  highlighting  the consumption sources that cause increasing bills, wastage and poor setup, all of which can be easily remedied.

Legislative back-stop

The UK is on track to achieve its renewable energy and waste recovery targets, suggesting a broader legislative approach is having the desired effect. This has still allowed positive growth inside UK Plc and has shown improvements in how we manage and handle our wastes. Some performance is led by the market demand (e.g. material prices), but even when the market fails the legislative back-stop allows the UK to achieve targets, helping to maintain our leadership role inside Europe on environmental standards.

As long as UK businesses continue to adhere to the current regulations set out by government, ecosurety believes the UK performance will remain on track and here's why:

• The UK appears to be able to meet its renewable energy targets. For example subsidies have suddenly been removed from green energy including solar, wind and bioenergy - a strong indicator of this. It is also the subject of much recent publicity because of the symbolic move away from traditional forms of energy such as coal and gas. Government policy would appear to steer away from going above and beyond minimum requirements, a position which seems to be underlined by the recent removal of subsidies.
  
  
• The new ESOS legislation gets off on the right foot by capturing the larger size companies. Government policy looks to remove burdens from small businesses and small polluters, and only penalise bigger players. ecosurety mirrors this approach by using industry experts to scope out only relevant businesses and energy consumption to minimise the impact of any energy assessment.
  
  
• Ongoing support after the ESOS submission deadline drives efficiencies internally using the ESOS framework, utilising an ISO 50001 model of data reporting, best practice process development and auditing. The ESOS Regulation drives focus on energy consumption as well showing what can change for the better.

Long term strategic plans

The explosion in solar energy across Germany, UK and perhaps next in the USA, shows that to support new clean energy technology, government intervention is needed. However ecosurety is not in favour of the sudden change of direction that then puts businesses affected by the clean energy technology sector at risk. Instead, ecosurety wants to see more consultation with industry to coordinate longer term strategic plans to promote and introduce green technology. This will steadily remove the incentives government can offer, allowing the open market to naturally support the implementation of green energy technology.

To book a free meeting with one of our ESOS Auditors, simply call 0845 0942228 to review your energy usage. We’ll then give you a bespoke solution to both comply with ESOS and drive savings to your business.

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