Data + Analytics: Connecting Energy Usage to Your Business Goals
After you understand where your organization’s emissions originate, and you have set your sustainability goals, it is time to develop an actionable strategy to achieve those goals. However, you can only make intelligent infrastructure decisions, pivot direction, plan, report or identify sustainability opportunities once you take control of your most significant asset: your energy consumption data.
Analyzing data can be time-consuming, costly and challenging–and very few companies are equipped to handle this in-house. Utility expense management platforms have become increasingly important tools for understanding energy expenses, finding areas of efficiency, and enabling companies to make progress towards their sustainability goals.
Utility management platforms provide real-time insights into energy usage. This allows companies to identify areas of high energy usage and to take steps to reduce usage in those areas. At a high level, these platforms allow companies to aggregate, simplify and ultimately optimize their energy usage, identify trends and recommend sustainability strategies, including:
- Aggregate and verify utility bills: Manually reviewing utility bills across multiple providers creates room for errors. These platforms can compile all line items on energy bills to create a standardized review and analysis of usage, as well as verify each item for accuracy. These platforms should compare and verify the utility tariffs for a company’s facility.
- Simplify user experience. The best utility management platforms provide an intuitive user experience. Standardizing energy bills across multiple utilities provides a simpler review and analysis of energy usage and expenses. Further, the platforms can create a comprehensive expense profile with custom reporting on data based on tailored goals.
- Provide a carbon footprint. The first step in developing a sustainability plan is understanding a company’s baseline and tracking towards the goals (e.g. carbon-free by 2030 or 2050). Beyond simplifying the user experience, utility expense management platforms provide that baseline and insights into areas for improvement or energy efficiency opportunities, especially for a franchise, university or other organization with large-footprint and widespread energy consumption. Data insights can compare various facilities to identify trends or changes in energy usage, then inform strategies for optimization.
Among these increasingly popular utility management platforms is Constellation’s Pear.ai, which is a fully automated solution, proactively managing utility costs, understanding trends, and developing strategies to optimize spending and drive sustainability goals. For example, a company could leverage Constellation’s Pear.ai tool to identify areas where lighting is left on unnecessarily and implement a policy of turning off lights when they are not needed.
Constellation’s Pear.ai platform can help companies benchmark their energy usage against those of similar-sized companies in their industry. Companies can identify areas where they are using more energy than their peers and take steps to reduce their usage.
The Pear.ai platform is uniquely equipped with its own virtual energy expert, named “Sam,” which can help customers quickly generate custom energy insights. Sam can respond to conversational queries about your data, instead of waiting to receive reporting information. Sam will also follow up with users on any issues and other proactive insights that may affect and improve energy usage.
Utility management platforms provide a range of benefits for companies looking to manage their energy usage. By reducing energy usage, companies can play a role in promoting sustainability and reducing their environmental impact. Additionally, providing real-time insights into energy usage is the best way to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements.
To start proactively taking control of your energy data with the Constellation Pear.ai platform, contact us today.
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Ready to work with energy experts who have the tools to easily connect your energy usage to your sustainability goals? Constellation can help your organization set a pathway to a more sustainable future.
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