Eco-friendly suppliers plan boardroom coup
The refrigeration and air conditioning sector is planning to boost interest in more energy-efficient versions of its products by targeting board members with accountancy-based arguments for such investments.
The Federation of Environmental Trade Associations (FETA) expects to hear this month whether it will be helped with funding -- believed to be less than £20,000 over one year -- from the government's Carbon Trust, said Mike Lawrence, who chairs FETA's Energy Reduction Group. FETA set up the latter to persuade boards of the financial and operational benefits of buying more efficient, albeit generally more expensive, plant.
The group wants to pay for someone who speaks board directors' language, such as a business school professor or retired accountancy practice partner, to prepare a financial case for better equipment. It then plans high-profile events designed to attract chairmen, mds and financial directors from the food, drink and other sectors.
Lawrence, a project manager at commercial refrigeration controls firm JLT Systems, said it was often difficult to get the case for high-efficiency equipment past project engineers. They might see, for example, that an electronically-commutated fan with 80% efficiency was more economic in the long term than the cheapest alternative, a shaded-pole unit of only 20% efficiency, said Lawrence, but their bonuses depended on paying the lowest first cost.
On average, refrigeration and air conditioning are a fifth of a building's electrical load, said FETA.
Meanwhile, energy consultancy Energy 2000 said firms are missing out on millions of pounds of savings through poor negotiation of energy contracts. It said using external negotiators could cut energy bills by 10%.
