ISO 50001: What is it and how can we help?

ISO 50001 is a standard for energy management systems designed to encourage businesses to improve their energy usage to become more sustainable. The ISO 50001 certification works as a way of giving organisations a framework to develop better energy management systems to reduce their environmental impact and energy costs. It all revolves around collecting the right data and measuring results to review the effectiveness of any energy systems in place to constantly make changes and improvements. The standard was first published in 2011 and developments have led to an energy management and savings family of standards with more to be developed in the future.

An energy management system is the structures that businesses put into place to improve their energy usage. Similar to ISO 14001, this all revolves around reducing your environmental impact as a business. This covers everything from implementing energy policies to setting your business targets for energy efficiency. To do this, you could implement new energy efficiency technologies or reduce your energy waste and costs. In order for your energy management system to be effective, you’ll need to be consistently collecting data to measure the results of any changes your business makes. This helps you to see if the energy efficiency changes you implement are working for your sites.

There are a whole host of benefits of having an ISO 50001 certified energy management system. The system helps you to identify and manage the risks surrounding your future energy supply.

Having an accredited ISO 50001 system can be a great way for your business to cut costs. Through your energy management system, you’ll be able to streamline your energy management process. This will involve looking at every aspect of your energy usage to find areas to become more energy efficient. When your business makes steps to become more energy efficient, your energy usage will drop leading to a dramatic reduction in your energy bills. Whilst the independent audit will have upfront costs, the long-term reduction in bills is likely to outweigh this.

An ISO 50001 accredited environmental management system is also a great way to reduce your business’ environmental impact. When you take steps to become more energy efficient, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint which is useful for any business reporting their emissions. Your energy usage makes up your scope 2 emissions and looking to more sustainable and energy efficient methods will drastically cut these. This could be from switching to more renewable energy sources, generating your own renewable energy or simply cutting down on your usage.

When you cut down on your emissions, you can also open up new business venture and opportunities. It’s becoming more and more common for businesses to want to work with like minded businesses who share their views on sustainability. As we move towards a more circular economy, businesses that aren’t focused on sustainability could get left behind. Having an ISO 50001 accreditation is a great way to show prospective partners that you’re not just saying you want to be more sustainable, it’s hard proof that you’re making the changes necessary.

While we can’t complete your independent audit and certify your business, we are on hand to help you achieve your certification. We can provide you with reporting on your energy usage to provide you with the starting point on your journey. Our experts are on hand to help your business find new ways to cut your energy consumption. This could be through switching to renewable energy contracts or generating your own renewable energy with solar panels. Our team are there every step of the journey to help your business become accredited.