How to persuade your organisation to invest in energy efficiency

Lexica Net Zero Director Lucy Symons-Jones joined a panel of speakers at the Energy Institute’s annual Energy Efficiency Conference on 19 January 2023 to discuss the greatest changes and challenges in the world of energy.

The debate focused on how to persuade decisionmakers to invest in both large and small-scale energy efficiency measures for organisations. Here, Lucy answers the age-old question: how to persuade your organisation to invest?

Here are three tips to convince decisionmakers to invest in energy efficiency.

1. Get references

Before you start making the business case of your energy efficiency project, get references and communicate those with your decisionmakers. We are very much at the execution stage of net zero, with suppliers and organisations out there proving themselves. There are so many new innovations and technologies coming in, and suppliers can solve your problems in so many new ways.

2. Be careful on price and programme

Focus on active management and let your decisionmakers know that you will be thoroughly programme managing your project. If and when there are delays, you need to know that your supplier is your partner in those challenges when they inevitably come.

There are tough conversations to have with decisionmakers when things go wrong, many of them from beyond the scope of your project. We know this from our work: supply chain challenges, Brexit and inflation mean that delays in kit delivery happen.

The option that offers the best value for money isn’t always the cheapest, and you’ll discover that local supply chains can be valuable. When it comes to heat decarbonisation, there are not always savings to be made in the short term: it’s helpful to get a handle on the trajectory for energy prices so you can brief your decisionmakers.

3. Make your energy efficiency plan simple

While it’s easy to blame policymakers or energy providers, it’s our job as practitioners to guide the decisionmakers in our organisation through the complexities the market is facing at any given time.

Technical analysis, strategic alignment and active management should be given equal importance. There are differences in motivations and also levels of awareness and education about energy. Start with discovering the implicit motivations of who you’re talking with, and ask yourself: why is it that these decisionmakers care?