ISO 50001

A strategic guide to establishing an energy management system

Alan Field

• Publisher: ITGP
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781787781542
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Energieressourcen

Reduce energy costs and combat climate change with ISO 50001

ISO 50001: 2018, the international standard for energy management, provides a framework for organisations – both large and small – to manage and reduce their energy usage and associated costs. Implementing an effective EnMS (energy management system) that complies with ISO 50001 ensures that an organisation can:

• Meet legal and contractual energy compliance requirements;
• Save money by managing energy more efficiently;
• Reduce its carbon footprint;
• Increase energy security; and
• Demonstrate a commitment to improved energy performance.

With energy security concerns rising and climate change an existential threat, consumers are increasingly aware of sustainability issues.

ISO 50001 – A strategic guide to establishing an energy management system provides a practical but strategic overview for leadership teams of what an EnMS is and how implementing one can bring added value to an organisation. It:

• Explains how ISO 50001: 2018 (which is based on ISO's Annex SL) differs from the previous version of the Standard;
• Provides readers with a greater understanding of what energy management is and how taking a risk-based approach can save money and improve brand reputation; and
• Covers how ISO 50001 can be implemented and how the EnMS can be integrated with other management systems, such as an ISO 14001 EMS (environmental management system).

Your strategic guide to energy management and ISO 50001 – buy this book today!

CHAPTER 1: WHY IS ENERGY MANAGEMENT A STRATEGIC ISSUE?

All organisations need to be more competitive. A part of this is using resources efficiently – lower costs can mean higher profits or, at the very least, more effective product or service delivery. Nothing new in that.

However, energy management is as much about preventing pollution as it is conserving resources. Customers are increasingly aware of wider issues of sustainability – what was 40 years ago the realm of eccentrics is now mainstream and urgent. This is coupled with greater regulation concerning climate change and other environmental matters, which impacts many organisations. Even those who question the validity of climate change cannot deny that fossil fuel energy resources are finite and that world demand for energy is increasing, with parts of the developing world now becoming more industrialised, and consumers expecting a wider range of products.

It is true that some extraction techniques such as fracking increase the timeline of energy stocks, and new technologies such as biogas can create alternative and more sustainable streams of production. However, these all have their own costs and environmental impacts. Some renewable energy sources have a lower carbon footprint but there is no free ride with any energy source, either financially or in terms of sustainability. More importantly, your customers know it.

There are many ways to economise energy use, with a number of technologies and systems available to monitor and reduce consumption. ISO 50001 is a way to bring together energy policies and initiatives into a single management system. ‘Clean growth’ is a buzz phrase that in essence means better productivity but fewer greenhouse gas emissions. In October 2017, the UK government introduced the Clean Growth Strategy, which recognises the demand for enormous reductions in carbon emissions to combat climate change, together with a need for cleaner air.⁶ In some markets, consumers are becoming more aware of the need for decarbonisation (the amount – or average amount – of carbon in primary energy that reduces over a defined period of time), and expect their suppliers of goods and services to recognise it.

One key strategic point to bear in mind is that in terms of ISO 50001 requirements, energy management does not necessarily align with green energy policies, e.g. renewable forms of energy. Energy performance might be improved by such technologies but not in all circumstances.

For example, reducing an organisation’s energy demand might reduce national demand on fossil fuel-generated energy, but equally, if an organisation was using renewable energy inefficiently, this could negatively impact the amount of fossil fuels that still need to be used. So, ISO 50001 cannot be seen as just a strategy to support renewables, or as one that supports all renewables without question. Understanding energy consumption and performance means that an organisation looks critically at how it sources its energy; in turn, this might encourage more green sources to be adopted as part of the mix.

It is key to remember that simply saying an organisation will reduce energy consumption does not mean it has an EnMS. Understanding how, why and where energy is being used is essential when devising an EnMS, whatever the motives may be for trying to use less energy.

While some experts might frown at the analogy, there are similarities between waste management policies and energy policies – there is as much a hierarchy of energy consumption as there is waste generation; the ideal waste is that which isn’t generated and, equally, instead of using energy reduction as a starting point, it is critical to look at each stage of a process to see if fewer resources can be deployed for the same outputs. This where quality and energy management can become bedfellows.

This leads us to another strategic reason for implementing an EnMS – energy security. For example, natural gas sometimes originates from politically unstable areas of the world, so there is a risk supplies could be withdrawn for political reasons. Another example is the use of electric cars – while substantiable in themselves, their recharging requirements will eventually put enormous demand on the National Grid. These are just two examples, but show that energy may not always be available on demand.

All security – be it energy or otherwise – reflects an element of uncertainty that has to be accepted and, where possible, addressed. Looking critically at your organisation’s energy consumption today, projecting it over a longer period of time and deciding how these outcomes can be improved not only makes good business sense but also supports resiliency goals for both the organisation and its stakeholders. Or, to put it another way, opportunity cost discussions will now always have energy factored in.

Benefits of an EnMS

• Better understanding of actual energy use on a periodic basis (depending on the process, this might mean by the day or by the second).

• More effective leadership focus on energy flows, e.g. setting energy policy and objectives.

• Better focus of both staff and other interested parties regarding energy use and how it may be more efficiently used.

• Smarter use of energy – unnecessary, excessive or inconsistent consumption can be identified and resolved.

• The risks and opportunities arising from using different energy sources can be examined, including renewable sources.

• Capital investment decisions can take into account energy considerations, e.g. new equipment and/or processes that use less energy or have less carbon impact.

ISO 50001 – is it essential for an EnMS?

The short answer is no. An international standard such as ISO 50001 can provide an effective framework for an EnMS but there are other possibilities, as we will see later.

⁶ https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/700496/clean-growth-strategy-correction-april-2018.pdf.

CHAPTER 2: TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Annex SL

HLS

ISO 50001 is part of the Annex SL family of ISO standards. In broad terms, ISO’s Annex SL high level structure (HLS) does what it says on the tin. It means that all future assessable ISO standards need to follow the high level requirements outlined in Annex SL.

Annex SL should be read as a document and not just consulted – even if the proposed EnMS doesn’t follow ISO standards.

For a leadership team member, arguably it is more important to read Annex SL than the standard itself (although, ideally, both should be read). This is because the approach taken with the HLS can assist with defining strategic ideas. It might also provoke other ideas within some organisations – for example, is risk-based thinking the only approach to take with energy management?

Annex SL assumes that continual improvement is the goal of every organisation because it assumes that a Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model is a core approach to process management (more about this later). Annex SL also assumes that all management systems are leadership led and managed, and that risk-based thinking is used throughout the PDCA model.

Since 2012, many new versions of ISO standards – such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 – have been issued incorporating Annex SL requirements. One intended output of this is that an organisation will find it more straightforward to create an IMS as the HLS will be the same across all standards.

So, for example, an organisation with ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 50001:2018 wil...