Manufacturing Succumbing To Energy-Efficiency Inertia: Workers Choose To Lend A Hand

Posted on 31. Mar, 2009 by Ross in Corporate Policy, Heavy Industry, Manufacturing

Energy efficiency is seemingly the big corporate issue for 2009, with companies aware of the need to save money by reducing energy costs, but many in the manufacturing sector are failing to make the sort of improvements necessary to help ride out the current recession and emerge stronger in what is likely to be a far more tightly-regulated, environmentally-oriented marketplace.

Energy efficiency has broken the traditional barrier between environmental and economic concerns, endowing company boards with a win-win scenario when contemplating energy-saving investments: defend profits and save the environment (as well as generating the resultant public relations opportunities). With the current international trend towards stronger legislation surrounding carbon dioxide emissions, cap-and-trade schemes and carbon import tariffs, energy efficiency measures promise to make businesses more resilient to the new economic reality. Despite the obvious business case for energy-saving technology, though, a report on UK manufacturing from EEF and Barclays concluded that companies were ‘missing out’ on the available opportunities.

Ray O