Andre de Fontaine's blog

Companies that make everything from computer chips to potato chips, search engines to jet engines, rubber tires to rubber soles, have stepped up this year to publicly support passage of comprehensive clean energy and climate change legislation. Why are companies calling for increased regulation? Isn’t that akin to a teenager arguing for an earlier curfew, or a second grader demanding an end to recess?

Actually, no. The days when businesses could be counted on to reflexively oppose all environmental regulations are over, and that’s a good thing. Nowhere is this shift more evident than in the case of climate change policy. American Business for Clean Energy tracks nearly 6,000 businesses, both large and small, that support energy and climate legislation. Dozens of companies, representing trillions of dollars in revenue, have signed on to letters and paid advertisements calling for prompt action on such legislation. These companies have determined that a clear and consistent national framework to begin reducing emissions is good for the economy and good for their industries. Our new brief, The Business Case for Climate Legislation, details the reasons why.

Dow Chemical has saved about $8.6 billion in energy costs since 1994. IBM overachieved on a 3.5 percent annual energy savings target, instead hitting 6.1 percent in 2008, saving millions of dollars in the process. And United Technologies Corporation met an original 25 percent energy efficiency target five years ahead of schedule, reset the target to 40 percent, and blew past it to achieve a 56 percent efficiency improvement by 2006.

How did these companies do it? What lessons can we draw from their extraordinary efforts? Can their successes be replicated across the broader economy?

These questions form the basis of our ongoing research project on corporate energy efficiency strategies. Findings from the study, titled “From Shop Floor to Top Floor: Best Business Practices in Energy Efficiency,” will be released April 6, 2010, at the start of a two-day conference in Chicago. The conference offers an unprecedented opportunity to hear directly from dozens of business executives who have successfully guided their companies to world-class energy savings. Registration is open now; don’t miss the opportunity to sign up for the special early bird rate of $600 for the two-day conference. Keynote speakers and panelists will be announced in the coming weeks. Also check out the conference ad in the Nov. 12 edition of The New York Times.

As energy prices continue to swing and the prospects for carbon constraints grow, it’s no wonder more and more companies are focusing their efforts on energy efficiency. But while most firms recognize the benefits of energy efficiency, many lack the information and resources required to take their efficiency programs to the next level.

To help provide these resources, we have launched a web portal with tools and information to help companies develop stronger energy efficiency strategies. The key feature of the portal is a searchable database of the energy efficiency activities undertaken by the 45 companies in the Center’s Business Environmental Leadership Council (BELC).

Also included on the web portal are results of our recent survey distributed to 95 major corporations that offer key insights for those exploring best practices in corporate energy efficiency. These include:

• Firms recognize the energy paradigm is changing rapidly.
• Companies are responding by establishing corporate-wide energy efficiency targets.
• Senior management support is critical in the development and implementation of energy efficiency programs.
• The most common challenge companies face in pursuing efficiency gains are resource constraints, especially limits on capital.
• Employee engagement is an effective, but possibly underutilized strategy for improving energy efficiency.
• Energy efficiency can be a gateway to wider business innovation.

The portal and survey are part of a larger research project that seeks to document and communicate best practices in corporate energy efficiency strategies across the following categories: internal operations, the supply chain, products and services, and cross-cutting issues. The next step of the project is the release of a comprehensive report summarizing our findings at a major conference in Chicago, April 6-7, 2010. The project is funded by a three-year, $1.4 million grant from Toyota.