Although wind and solar are the least expensive forms of energy generation in most of U.S., many companies operating here struggle to save money when they buy clean energy.  As we mentioned in our last blog, most organizations that want to buy clean energy today must pay a “green premium”. This has put finance and sustainability teams at odds as one tries to manage costs and the other tries to meet corporate decarbonization goals.

So, what can sustainability and energy teams do to win people over?

The power of data-driven expectations management

The fastest way to build support for a clean energy program is by actively managing expectations around financial performance.

Traditionally, energy and sustainability leads have struggled to identify and collect fragmented data spread across numerous spreadsheets and departments. Incredibly, we’ve found that some very large companies with distributed operations and manufacturing facilities struggle to accurately predict how much they’ll spend on energy next year. One Fortune 1000 company told us it manually inputs energy data in spreadsheets for its two largest manufacturing facilities and based on that information, estimates energy data for all its other sites. Naturally, this can be frustrating for both the energy/sustainability teams as well as the finance team.

Identifying the data owner, accessing the data, and standardizing it in the format you need is time-consuming, particularly for large enterprises. Furthermore, manual data entry and report-building is prone to errors and delays in reporting. That makes it hard for energy and sustainability managers to answer critical questions about budgets and forecasted spend.

Fortunately, new cost-effective tools from companies like Verse help you avoid these pain points, aligning finance and sustainability teams and building support for clean energy programs with data-driven insights. 

1. Aggregate & standardize your data

Many Fortune 1000 companies are collecting energy use data in spreadsheets, and in some cases, only collecting it from their largest, most energy-intensive facilities and extrapolating other facilities’ energy use based on that data. This manual process is error-prone, inexact, and time-consuming.

Drawing on Arcadia’s industry-leading platform which aggregates data from >5,000 utilities in over 40 countries, Verse’s Utility Bill Management app allows you to view your electricity and gas statements in an easy-to use interface (water statements will be included in a future product release).

Our engineering team harmonizes this data (standardizing units of measurement, for instance), and cleanly align it with the calendar months, so you can view costs on a monthly or annual basis. You can view energy cost and use at regional or site-specific levels, and dive into the details of specific sites to view billing statements and the impact of weather on your energy portfolio.

2. Understand your energy costs & invoices

Many large energy users have difficulty understanding key reasons for changes in their energy costs. This makes it difficult to explain cost changes to leadership, much less take steps to address the underlying causes.

The Utility Bill Management app lets you benchmark your operating sites by comparing current energy cost and usage data to prior and average periods. This insight helps you understand fluctuations over time, identify potential drivers of change, and take steps to manage variations. For instance, manufacturers could use this information to improve efficiency or shift production schedules to minimize costs.

3. Forecast energy spend more accurately

You can’t forecast future costs without understanding your current and historical costs. The more accurately you can forecast costs, the more appreciative your finance team will be.

The Utility Bill Management app analyzes prior energy use patterns from your utility invoices. Once you have a handle on your historical energy load, you can start to develop more precise energy procurement plans – including building clean energy plans to reach your decarbonization goals with Verse’s Planning app. Without an accurate understanding of your current and historical data, however, your forecasts will be little better than guesses.

Increase buy-in for clean energy programs

With the right data management and reporting tools, you can accelerate your organization’s decarbonization goals while also ensuring your program delivers measurable, impactful results:

• Instant Access to Data: Decision-makers can get real-time insights into energy use and costs, enabling quicker and more informed decisions.
• Time Savings & Accuracy: Automated reporting can save thousands of hours annually and avoid manual data entry errors. With less time spent on inputting and reviewing manual reporting, your team can focus on higher-impact projects.
• Improved Credibility: Accurate, up-to-date reporting builds trust with leadership and stakeholders, particularly finance teams.

By being able to quickly answer leadership questions about how clean energy program tracks against budget or decarbonization goals, energy and sustainability leads can build program credibility, focus on strategic initiatives, and have an even greater impact.   

Contact us to learn more about our solutions and how they can revolutionize your company’s energy management and planning!