The phrase “credit crunch” seems to have become part of the English language almost overnight and it’s a phrase you’re no doubt sick of hearing, as you will be of the joke that it sounds like a new breakfast cereal! But as tumbling sales on the high street and spiralling overheads show, it’s no laughing matter and most businesses, if they have any sense, will be looking at ways to protect themselves against its effects.

At the same time, while the headlines and political attention have given way to the worsening economic situation, the green agenda is still something that concerns most people at some level. Companies thought of as green are thought of as “nice” companies. Indeed, one well-judged PR campaign on green commitments has the potential to do the work of an expensive and long-running marketing campaign in terms of a company’s brand image.

Traditionally, saving money and being green have been thought of as mutually exclusive. Happily, this is not always the case: there is a way to protect against the credit crunch and improve brand image and that is to improve energy efficiency. One simple solution to please your finance director and your energy and marketing director.

In a single site operation, improving energy efficiency can be as simple as remembering to switch off the lights as you leave the office. But when you’re operating a business over a hundred or more sites, it becomes a lot more complicated. So just how do you achieve energy efficiency and demonstrable cost-savings in a multi-site operation?

The answer lies in energy monitoring. In the past, it’s been seen as a way of identifying problems with equipment and proactively maintaining it across multiple sites, but as more and more businesses are realising, it can actually offer the means to bring about increased energy efficiency and cost savings. And quite substantial cost savings too.

To take an example, a large supermarket chain can expect their refrigeration load to account for between 40 and 50% of a store’s energy load. The design, age and condition of the plant will obviously affect the savings available but, with the correctly tailored energy monitoring and reduction package, it’s not unreasonable to achieve a 30% saving. Equally, for a typical high street retailer, where lighting and HVAC will be the largest energy loads, putting in place the same caveats about the standard of the equipment and the quality of the package implemented, savings of 50% on night time usage can be identified and achieved.

Clearly, such savings are very attractive, but in order to stand a chance of achieving them, you need to partner with the right energy monitoring provider. So what should you be looking for?

Firstly, pick a provider that’s got experience in retail and has a good track record of products and solutions. (As a guide, Parasense has got over 20 years’ experience. Some of our bespoke solutions, such as our refrigerant leak detector, have gone on to become market leading products and the cost savings outlined above are savings that we’ve achieved on previous multi-site projects).

Secondly, pick one that believes in teamwork. While your provider will undoubtedly have the energy experience you need, they won’t know your business unless they’re prepared to listen to you and therefore won’t be able to achieve the results you need. A provider should be undertaking an energy review lasting around 6 – 8 weeks before they recommend any solutions. And once those solutions are in place, they should be continuing to monitor it to gauge its success and enable them to make further recommendations. They should also be able to implement a user-friendly data management solution – ours is called Headline News – so that analysing results and making decisions to improve energy efficiency isn’t a time-consuming chore.

Experts are predicting a 10p per kW/h energy price in the near future. Multiply that 24 hours a day 365 days a year across 100 or more sites and you have an operating budget that keeps you awake at night. Energy monitoring is not the answer to all the problems of the credit crunch. It does allow you to focus your attention on more important matters other than the utilities bill, though.