SMEs — small and medium-sized businesses — may be missing out on energy savings due to employees and management failing to keep to basic efficiency measures.
An independent survey of 2,000 UK SME staff members conducted on behalf of energy firm E.ON suggested that “passing the buck” on energy is to blame.
Only one in ten felt that energy saving efficiency measures was their responsibility. In particular, junior executives passed over strategies aimed at energy savings, believing it should be dealt with by senior management or CEOs.
However, only 22 percent of owners and CEOs acknowledged that offices should be energy efficient, and 24 percent admitted they rarely pondered the issue.
Over half — 51 percent — of CEOs said they “never discussed” energy saving measures with their staff, and 11 percent have taken no measures at all. Connect this to 57 percent of standard employees who said they haven’t been issued clear guidelines on energy savings and it seems there is a very low level of awareness displayed by businesses over energy efficiency.
Iain Walker, E.ON’s head of business sales commented:
“I was quite surprised that the overall number of people taking personal responsibility for saving energy, and for passing on help to colleagues, is still relatively low.
I think responsibility for reducing waste should start at the top, with bosses and senior managers passing the message to all employees.”
Earlier this year, E.ON’s own research suggested that UK SMEs were losing £7.7 billion ($12.2bn) a year due to energy inefficiency.
Image credit: Flickr
