Half of senior managers ‘don’t know how much their company spends on energy’

Despite nearly a fifth (18%) of UK firms spending a quarter of a million pounds each year on energy, almost half (46%) of senior business managers admit to having ‘no idea at all’ of what their company spends on energy – according to a new report from E.ON. 

The poll of 760 senior UK managers and directors across medium and large businesses, conducted by E.ON and the Telegraph Media Group, found that two-thirds of senior managers say they have no understanding of how their business buys its energy, and half do not even know who buys it. Nearly half confess to having a ‘limited understanding’ of costs.

This lack of understanding means businesses may be missing opportunities to save money, improve sustainability and potentially generate income from participating themselves in energy markets, says supplier E.ON.

Meanwhile, no matter how strong the financial or social case put forward in support of an energy strategy, just over half of respondents report that their management board has a ‘negative’ or ‘neutral’ response to its importance. And, when trying to understand this lack of interest in energy strategy from board members not involved in energy decision-making, the key issues cited were lack of time, resources, funds or knowledge respectively. 

However, despite the lack of understanding from the senior leadership in businesses, the majority of large businesses (68%) in the poll and almost half of smaller businesses (42%) do have someone responsible for looking at energy strategy, says E.ON. Of those energy decision-makers, three-quarters have a reduction strategy planned and two-thirds also have a thought-out compliance and legislation process. Some 40% even have plans in place to create revenue generation from surplus production. 

But energy decision-makers need widespread buy-in for these plans to become fully effective; ideally plans need to be championed by a board-level director.

Phil Gilbert, Director of Customer Solutions at E.ON for Business, said: ‘Energy is changing, with new solutions that give businesses of all sizes the power to control their energy use, improve competitiveness and also put money on the bottom line. To make the most of this opportunity energy needs to be thought about in the right way and at the right level – this is a strategic decision that rightly sits in boardroom discussions.’