Enterprise Carbon and Energy Management Systems Preempt Carbon Regulation
According to the best experts, carbon regulation is in our relatively near future, as the production and emission of carbon related to energy use becomes the subject of significant restrictions. We now know how greenhouse gases contribute to global warming and climate change and understand that these gases are an unfortunate product of the fossil fuel based energy that we use. Enterprise carbon and energy management systems have been designed to help the organization fully understand where exactly it stands.
We are entering the era of carbon regulation. There are various ideas about how to handle this, with many Western nations believing that market forces should dictate a containment. This would invariably mean a form of cap and trade program, converting carbon into a tradable commodity, restricting its use artificially and reducing its impact.
Most organizations understand that they need to do everything they can to cut down their conventional energy usage. The problem is that a vast number of organizations simply do not understand how to address the issue. This is where enterprise carbon and energy management systems come to the fore, as these systems have been developed to allow the company to fully analyze its energy needs, calculate associated carbon emissions and manipulate the information to take action.
It would be nice to think that carbon regulation could happen by itself as we all became “greener” and move to renewable forms of energy and better practices. While this will make something of a difference, it will be nowhere near enough to bring the major changes necessary to safeguard the planet. The smartest organizations, understanding that carbon regulation is near, adopt enterprise carbon and energy management systems to help them cope.
Reputational ham awaits those who flounder around and do little. Carbon can be viewed as a threat, something that could really affect brand management and it is not acceptable to be energy inefficient anymore. Throughout the company, individual assets must be scrutinized and a concerted plan developed.
During the next year or so, we are bound to hear a lot about international initiatives designed to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Environmentalists hope that the successor will be more successful and will help to enforce individual nations around the world to make stringent reductions in their own carbon emissions. While Kyoto may have been largely ineffective due to individual government politics and economic considerations, current levels of awareness will likely ensure a better result.
Many organizations realize that carbon regulation is one thing, but reputational gain and competitive advantage are also very attractive. However, it is important not to rush forward with a poorly thought out plan, hoping for such gain as this could result in the opposite effect. Once an enterprise carbon and energy management system is in place, an organization may act with some credibility.
Sustainability is not an option and while carbon regulation may yet be some way off, recent rulings by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States show that an increasing number of organizations nationwide will now have to provide data about their energy use and emissions for the first time.
Daniel Stouffer has a lot of information about enterprise carbon and energy management systems and how a visit to www.verisae.com will aid you.
