1. Just pay the bill, don’t care to look closer.
People hate bills. Especially bills that come back every month and we have no control over. We prefer to forget about them as quickly as possible. However, that is exactly what we should NOT do! Those recurring bills represent our biggest savings potential. So take a closer look at them, look for help to understand why the bill is so high and start saving money today!
2. Energy cost are accepted as a given cost, nothing can be done about it.
Whether we run a hotel, rice mill or factory, we all need energy. We simply cannot do without it. So we have to pay that bill. But that doesnot mean that we cannot reduce our energy cost. Experience from Europe is that 10% of savings can be achieved without too much effort. In Cambodia, where the inefficiencies are way higher, upto 20% is feasible and sometimes more. The first step is to find out exactly where the bulk of our electricity is used, and then we can make a plan to reduce it.
3. No one is responsible for energy cost.
Lets face it: in most organisations, everybody is supposed to make sure no energy is wasted. But at the end of the day, no-one is really responsible. If electricity is a substantial part of your operating cost, saving 20% is good money. So someone with authority should be made responsible to achieve that.
4. No target, no tools and no incentive!
The person that is responsible for reducing energy consumption should stand a chance of being succesful. (s)he should have a realistic-ambitious target, should have the tools to monitor progress and an incentive to make the savings happen. Kamworks can help you setting the right target, provide the tools and suggest the right level of incentive.
5. Penny wise, pound foolish
Lots of organisations do little things to control their electricity bill. But we tend to zoom in on details, rather than taking a helicopter view of our entire operation. Once we start doing that, we will find that there are certain areas where we can achieve a short pay-back time with a one-time investment.
6. Loss of momentum.
Assume we made a plan to reduce our electricity bill. We put a lot of effort and got some good results. However, after our campaign, we quickly slip back into the old routine, and our electricity cost creeps up again. Energy conservation requires a continuous effort, support from top management and should be supported by a data driven approach.
7. Lack of training
Reducing energy cost starts with awareness of the staff. A higher level of awareness can be achieved with a simple training. The energy manager that is overall responsible should preferably have an engineering or finance background and might need additional training to understand the data and use the tools at his disposal to achieve the monthly target.
