ISO 50001 Energy Management Standard Promotes Sustainability in Business

Improving energy efficiency is very significant for businesses that want to be sustainable. However, according to research, businesses are still failing to realise their energy efficiency potentials. This is due to their energy management plan or strategy being improperly integrated into their core organisational management. One effective way to ensure proper integration is the implementation of the ISO 50001 energy management system. ISO 50001 will help them create a dynamic model for energy management that will and provide processes or practices to track, evaluate, and optimise energy use. A planned and systematically implemented energy management system (EnMS) can accelerate the energy management mechanism in businesses overnight and help businesses to reduce consumption, save costs, and grow profits.

Therefore, when an EnMS is implemented into the organisation according to the requirements of the ISO 50001 standard, businesses can cost-effectively contribute to sustainability plans. This article further explains the overall benefits and contribution of the standard in promoting business sustainability.

Helps Establishing an Energy Management Plan

The ISO 50001 energy management standard leads to the establishment and effective implementation of an EnMS, helping organisations follow a planned approach to energy efficiency. They need to ensure the EnMS aligns with pressing sustainability needs by considering the energy objectives that they want to meet. The EnMS will also help them set new energy management or efficiency goals, such as carbon emission control, and create a structured approach to EnMS implementation.

Provides Direct Business Advantages

Apart from putting a reliable EnMS into action and enhancing the energy performance of the organisation, the ISO 51000 standard also drives business value with certain tangible advantages. Being an international standard, it highlights the recognition and brand value of the business, which attracts many market opportunities. Businesses will try to be a part of its supply chain and potential investors will contact the certified business because of its energy sustainability and carbon mitigation practices. ISO certification is a good incentive for other organisations to get into an alliance with the concerned business. Some other business advantages that it will realise are cost savings, competitive advantage, credibility in the industry, and the strengthening of supplier relationships.

Leads to Continuous Improvement

The implementation of the EnMS puts pressure on the organisation to regularly assess and improve their energy efficiency performance. They incorporate an energy footprint tool to track the consumption of energy in the manufacturing processes, and they can eventually evaluate energy performance indicators, such as costs incurred on fuel, electricity, power consumption, and monetary savings on the energy bill. The ISO 50001 framework ensures that a monitoring and corrective model always exists in the business, and that improvement is continuous. The model involves 4-steps: Plan, Do, Check, and Act. Planning involves getting the management system ready with energy management objectives, and doing involves encouraging employees to work on the EnMS and fulfill its goals. Checking requires identifying performance indicators with audits and seeing where improvements are needed, and acting means implementing necessary corrective measures.

These three points show how an ISO 50001 energy management system helps a business contribute to a purposeful sustainability plan. It is the prime significant reason for a business to enact the ISO standard for EnMS. Sustainability is a growing interest in businesses due to environmental degradation and the rapid deterioration of energy resources. In these scenarios, getting an ISO compliant management system is the ideal way for a business to actively put effort into sustainable energy management.