Urjanet Survey: Energy Executives Are Committed to Sustainability Projects, But Many Companies Are Lacking the Resources and Tools to Achieve Their Goals

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Urjanet Survey: Energy Executives Are Committed to Sustainability Projects, But Many Companies Are Lacking the Resources and Tools to Achieve Their Goals Manual data collection and weak data management processes are severely limiting visibility into the performance of corporate sustainability initiatives ATLANTA — May 12, 2016 — Urjanet has completed a survey of nearly 200 U.S….

Urjanet Survey: Energy Executives Are Committed to Sustainability Projects, But Many Companies Are Lacking the Resources and Tools to Achieve Their Goals

Manual data collection and weak data management processes are severely limiting visibility into the performance of corporate sustainability initiatives

ATLANTA — May 12, 2016 — Urjanet has completed a survey of nearly 200 U.S. energy executives. The survey ran online in March and April, and focused on the goals and challenges of companies pursuing sustainability projects. In general, companies appear torn between a desire for greater efficiency in their energy management process, and a willingness to commit the resources necessary to achieve their sustainability objectives.

More than 50 percent of executives surveyed by Urjanet said they are committed to sustainability and/or energy efficiency projects, but most companies still rely on outdated tools and processes to collect and manage energy data, severely limiting visibility into project performance. This is demonstrated by the fact that 40 percent of respondents said they obtain paper utility bills from service providers, and 51 percent said they manually input data from utility bills into spreadsheets. Meanwhile, 60 percent said that insufficient resources to complete energy projects would be their biggest energy management challenge in 2016.

Inefficient tools and processes make it difficult to assess sustainability project outcomes. While 28 percent of respondents use software to calculate savings on energy projects, 34 percent said an inability to validate ROI was the least efficient aspect of their energy management process. Fourteen percent don’t bother even trying to calculate savings.

“Energy managers will always be challenged by fluctuating energy prices, sprawling locations and equipment, and regulatory changes. These issues are typically beyond their control,” says Sanjoy Malik, CEO at Urjanet. “What they can control are the tools and processes they use to manage energy projects. By automating data collection and analysis, companies can reduce costs and increase visibility into project performance.”

Urjanet’s survey revealed several other interesting data points:

  • 57 percent said automated utility data collection and auto-import of accounts was the most important factor when choosing energy management software
  • 54 percent said that the vice president of operations or director of energy was the primary decision-maker for energy management strategy implementation
  • 50 percent said that managing all the data required for energy management would be their biggest energy management challenge this year
  • 44 percent said gathering or organizing energy consumption and cost data by site and meter was the most inefficient aspect of their energy management process
  • 31 percent said that Microsoft Excel is the technology they value most as a part of their energy management practice
  • 25 percent said that mastery of various energy management software and visualization tools to produce actionable insights was the least efficient part of their energy management process
  • Only six percent said senior management isn’t interested in sustainability or energy efficiency

Click here to view the infographic version of the press release.

ABOUT URJANET
Urjanet’s mission is to provide the world with easy access to automated utility data. Our cloud-based platform connects directly to utilities to seamlessly acquire and normalize disparate utility bill and interval data. The processed data is delivered directly to industry-leading business applications.

Public and private organizations across the world use Urjanet data to achieve sustainability goals and reduce energy consumption and cost. Urjanet is rapidly becoming the global standard for utility data and powers applications from the leading energy and sustainability solutions providers.

Urjanet is a privately-held company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, visit urjanet.com.

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Contact:
Adam Bowers
Urjanet
(774)-226-9377
adam.bowers@qa.urjanet.com