Building the Case for Change: How You Can Lead your Business Towards Net Zero at Least Cost
So welcome everybody to the latest in our series of Net Zero webinars.
Today's topic is building the case for change.
How you can lead your business to Net Zero at least cost.
We know it's a worthy title, but the intent is to show you practical ways to start the Net Zero conversation within your business better housekeeping.
The presentation will run for about 30 minutes and at the end we'll have 15 minutes for a bit of a Q and a session.
However, send through your questions throughout so that we don't miss anything.
It'll be recorded at the end, does it mention before and you'll get a copy sent out to you? So by way of introduction, my name is Tim.
I'm the national manager of the business services team at Energy Action.
I see businesses transitioning towards Net zero at a ridiculous rate of knots, which is why I'm excited to have the Energy Efficiency Council Australia's Industry association for everything that zero involved in this webinar.
I'm also delighted to introduce Holly Taylor who was the head of Projects she specializes, specializes in energy strategy efficiency policy and energy management systems.
Making the topic of building the case for change directly within her wheelhouse, delighted to be here Tim.
Thanks for having me.
It's really good to be working with a company that's on the coalface.
Excuse the pun of the energy transition, working directly with businesses supporting them with realizing their net zero plans.
Of course.
The Energy efficiency council is on all involved in that policy at the back end and getting that up.
But it's really great to be working directly with businesses that are helping the businesses on the ground.
So, really looking forward to the conversation today.
Thanks Tim anymore.
Ridiculous puns coming up throughout, do you think? Maybe? Alright, so each year we actually run a survey to get a pulse on what's happening with our clients, which gives us really cool feedback on how we're doing as a business, but more importantly provides us with insight into market trends and into internal organizational challenges.
Today's Webinar was born from these insights which shows us that 85% of employees believe their business needs to act on climate change.
However, Only 27% are incorporating it into their corporate strategy.
So what does this tell us? It tells us that employees want to see change, but they need help.
As an aside, we're currently running a more detailed net zero pulse survey which will be redirected to at the end of the webinar.
So the drive for Net zero isn't just coming internally from businesses.
It's also coming from external factors from consumers through the government's and it's really important that businesses understand this.
A really good example is after the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's most recent Assessment report in august this year.
Essential report actually undertook a survey of Australian consumers and more or less there's clear backing and concerned about the impacts of climate change in Australia.
Indeed, 81% of us are concerned about the impacts of continued bushfires and those concerns actually cover off not just bush fires, but all of the physical risks.
And notably the area which had the least amount of concern, which was rising sea levels, still had 72% of Australians concerned about that impact on Australia.
So what does that actually mean? Well, 61% of us want government to act, 61% of us want government to commit to net zero by 2030 not 2050 as is recommended by the international community, but 2030 and that's quite substantial.
So moving on from consumers that are obviously backing this push and wanting businesses to move supply chains are also pushing this.
So cdP has been working with big, big businesses, big multinationals that have quite complex supply chains for a number of years and you've actually got businesses that have committed to net zero, you're Unilever, Unilever's and your coca cola animals of the world that are working with their supply chains to get them to reduce their energy consumption and their emissions.
Indeed, 37% of them are working directly with their upstream suppliers to ensure that their scope three emissions, those emissions that don't come directly from the gas that they're burning on site or the electricity that they're using, but come from their supply chains and their transport and things like that.
They want to ensure that those emissions get down as well so that they can realize their net zero commitments and this number is growing year on year.
So moving on from supply chains, you've also got investor pressure Now, of Australian investors and I'm talking about big institutional investors here have committed to net zero portfolios.
What does that mean? It means they don't want to invest in businesses that haven't committed to net zero and that number again is increasing year on year.
If you want to learn more about that, I employ you to read to read the investor group on climate change is most recent report and last but definitely not least in this instance, governments are moving, I'm sure you've all seen the back and forth in the news from the commonwealth government as to whether or not they're going to commit to net zero by 2050 in advance of cop later this month.
But it doesn't really matter because all of the states and territories, that's 100% of the land on this country have committed to net zero by 2050.
Indeed, Tasmania is already there because of the sheer amount of hydro they have.
And we've actually had new south Wales, our largest state just last week up there, 2030 target to 50% emissions reductions.
And this is quite substantial because as states commit to these targets, they'll be working closely with businesses to work.
So with this big ecosystem from consumers through the government's, it's clear that the pressure isn't just coming from within a business, but it's also coming from without and on the investor side of things as well, we're seeing a lot of large emitters actually get penalized from their banking institutions um for not looking to achieve in that zero target, they do that in the form of not either refusing to refinance or adding increased percentage points on their on their loan options.
So it's interesting.
So for the steps towards Net zero, so we briefly touched on the y of net zero, but this looks at the steps, the fundamentals of how to achieve Net Zero is simple, it's the detail that you can easily get lost in also, I also fully appreciate that, you know, all of you will be on a different part of this journey, some will have already tackled all these steps, others haven't even started.
However, this webinar is still relevant no matter what stage you're on.
So just to quickly touch on these, uh, this is continuous measurement of your carbon impact either in house or our monitoring service or platform, reducing our carbon emissions through energy efficiency, shifting to on site renewable energy, also known as behind the meter.
Think of your solar systems procurement of offsite renewable energy via green option, green power or power purchase agreement also known as in front of the meter.
And finally, and by finally, I mean finally ending with offsetting, which highly will get into into a bit more detail shortly, Awesome.
Thanks tim.
So for those of you that are working on your net zero plan, there's one place that you need to start and that's energy management.
It's really simple as to why you should do this.
As you'll see from this graph, 70% of Australia's emissions come from energy with a further 10% coming from fugitive emissions which are related to the extraction and transport of fossil fuels that is largely involved in our energy system.
So that's really 80% of Australia's emissions are directly and indirectly coming from energy.
So what does that mean from your perspective, really clearly it means energy management is the key to your net zero plan at least cost.
So what exactly is energy management? We'll put simply energy management is what you do behind the meter.
It's how you control energy use.
And that really starts with both energy efficiency and demand management.
Energy efficiency is putting putting it simply using less energy to achieve the same or better outcomes.
So what's an example of that? Well, an led light bulb consumes 80% less electricity than incandescent bulb, but it's also producing better quality light.
And you can do a lot of other things with it such as change the colors and the lights and I'm sure you've seen some really interesting led lights.
It's quite a lot of fun you can have with that.
That's just one example though you can achieve similar, well not quite as high but pretty decent savings in other areas around other areas that use energy.
So there's lots of good opportunity.
What exactly does demand management mean though, demand management is shifting when you're using your energy so that you can reap the benefits of lower energy costs.
Now.
That could be shifting energy use two times a day when your tariffs are lower or it could be shifting energy use in small periods of time and being incentivized to do that by the energy market operator.
There's lots of different opportunities here and it's really good to get your head across that.
But what does that help in terms of reducing your emissions? Well, the reason why that matters is because as our grid transitions to variable renewable energy, so that's wind and solar, which isn't on all of the time, we need to be able to shift demand so that it matches supply and being involved in demand management not only can you get paid for it and realize those financial benefits, but you can ensure the affordability and indeed the reliability of our grid as it decarbonized is so as a really good point, what does this mean in terms of opportunities? Well, the bulk of the energy in Australia is undoubtedly used by mining and manufacturers, they use about 40% of our energy all up, but that doesn't mean that other businesses are also energy intensive.
Whilst agriculture only accounts for 2% of our energy consumption has got quite high emissions.
However, certain types of ag businesses have pretty big loads and there's a lot of opportunity around energy efficiency.
So with that in mind, tim, would you mind moving to the next slide done? So, energy efficiency is the world's first fuel.
What do I mean by that? Well, the cheapest form of energy is the energy that don't you that you don't use.
As you can see by this graph by the International Energy Agency.
Energy efficiency is actually offered us the largest capacity of any opportunity.
So that's all the generation.
What does that mean? It means our households and businesses have reduced their demand for energy, but they're still getting the same services and that's the least cost option for you individually in your business.
But also for the whole system has a really good example of that.
After the 2011 Fukushima tsunami, Energy management in Japan reduced peak demand by 19% and by 2016 energy management for energy efficiency had replaced 39% of the output of the 49 nuclear generators that had been closed after the disaster.
That's really important to note because the rest of that output was replaced by coal and gas and nuclear uses a hell of a lot less emissions than coal and gas.
You were able to touch on what's happened here and I think it's bleak 2008, it looks like a bit of a reduction on all parts.
Yeah.
So as everyone might recall back in 2000 and eight, we had a global financial crisis.
So we had a global recession and when we have a recession, you gotta drop in energy demand because there's a drop in activity in our businesses.
So really interestingly, we've seen the exact same thing in 2020 because of the covid pandemic Overall energy consumption reduced starkly last year and our emissions globally therefore reduced.
However, we've seen a massive rebound in 2021 as the global economy kicks on and energy consumption and emissions with it has shot right back up.
Yeah, we're certainly seeing that on our end as well.
So spot on, awesome.
So what do you do with this? Energy efficiency is the first fuel, but it's pretty simple.
Your best option is to put in an energy management system and that doesn't have to be aligned, but it doesn't have to meet the international standard of ISO 50,000 and one.
But you wanted to be aligned with the principles of that international standards and the reasons for that, is that an energy management system if implemented correctly, can deliver a year on year energy savings of 3% or more.
So if you were to go in and do a holistic review of everything in your operations and then invest in all of those upgrades, you can easily reduce your energy consumption by 30%.
But the benefit of an energy management system is that once you've done that initial, let's jump into energy efficiency and reduce our energy consumption.
You can then go well, there's more opportunities to fine tune things and to optimize things and you can continue to realize those savings year on year.
So how exactly do you do this? Well, it's really important that you start with planning.
So planning is effectively putting in place a strategy and this can be your Net zero strategy and your energy strategy combined into one.
You're really trying to go, what are we trying to achieve with policies and targets and action plan to achieve that? Now, what's really important is that you've got this, there's planning but it's underpinned by the enabling infrastructure.
So what is the enabling infrastructure? That's executive buying? So the top level of your business wants to get this done.
They're committed to seeing it through their committed to put putting the funding that is needed to realize these savings and you also need to have an energy team.
Now that can be the FM.
That's at the bottom of the ground that's dealing with all this stuff that leads on it.
But they need buy in from people of different parts of the organization so that as a group, you understand why you're doing it and what the benefits are and that's a clear planning bit.
So what's next, where you move from planning to doing, you implement your action plan and your activities to reduce your energy consumption and your emissions and once you've done that you need to check that they're working.
You need to see what they're doing, what the outputs are, how that can be fine tuned, how it can be improved and last but not least.
You act on what you've learned from that check now this is a continuous improvement, it's planning, it's doing, its checking, it's acting and it will enable you to achieve year on year savings.
May I have the next slide thanks to him.
So what are you gonna do with this energy management system and this plan? Do check act framework? Well, you want to take a holistic approach to your energy management and that's really three things that you need to do.
That's leveraging data based insights and measuring your energy consumption, as tim said earlier and using that data and those insights to calibrate your investment.
Now, as I mentioned earlier that a couple of different ways that you can do energy management behind the meta first, definitely, definitely not least.
Most important is energy efficiency.
You kick off those energy efficiency upgrades first because by reducing your energy consumption, you're then able to reduce the amount of investment that you need in on site solar PV solar PV of course you could oversize your system and potentially export some of that electricity however the tariffs on that continue to go down as the growth of rooftop solar increases.
So we're starting with that energy efficiency space and then we're thinking about demand management and that's moving and shifting our energy consumption so that it matches what's happening on the grid and so that it matches what's happening with your potential solar PV and last but not least obviously that solar PV.
So you really need to use your data and insights to think about where do we need the investment across these three areas.
That's really important to be thinking about ongoing and not just looking at the quick winds, like putting some solar PV on the roof and putting some led lighting in.
But actually looking at your equipment.
Now, if you're a manufacturer, there's huge opportunities across a lot of different areas.
But even if you're an office based business, there's opportunities in your office equipment, there's opportunities in your air conditioning.
It's really important to look at that and indeed I can point you to some resources that will help you with that.
So once we've used that data and we've calibrated that investment in energy efficiency, demand management, renewables, well, we basically need to procure the remainder of our energy.
So anything that you can't generate on site, you need to get off site.
Now if you're committed to net zero the easy piece there is to procure renewable energy and indeed TIM is going to go into a bit more detail on that.
So once you've done all of these activities, this is a last and definitely least step you offset the remainder of your emissions.
You want to be able to reduce all of your energy related emissions with energy efficiency, demand management, renewable energy.
So it's leaving the only thing that you need to do is offset the remainder of those tricky ones.
So with that in mind, I'm going to pass over to TIM so I can give you a bit more context on procurement.
All right, thank you.
So, I actually thought it makes sense to bookend holy discussion with the initial steps.
Um, so as you can see there's no cookie cutter approach to achieving that zero.
But arming yourself with the basic plan around these five pillars is going to be your best course of action when starting out.
So I won't labor on this line for too long.
But the key takeaway from today needs to be that you don't need to go it alone.
You can completely remove your scope two emissions through smart procurement which should start with looking at a renewable backed energy supply agreement or a research is what we're calling it.
This is the alternative to a corporate P.P.A
Which seems to be right for a few but not many.
We've recently actually completed a research for a large well known client with a number of cool outcomes.
They source 100% renewable power from an identifiable source.
And what's even more amazing is actually cheaper than what they were currently paying.
Uh, reporting and contracting was simple and very similar to that of your standard energy contract effectively disarming lawyers at 10 paces.
It hit the client's net zero benchmark.
And as an added bonus retailers participated heavily because they saw this as a way to market their own green credentials.
As an aside, we have a video on our youtube page that goes into more detail on this.
Of course, every bit of energy you don't use is helping you reduce emissions and save money.
So solar where feasible needs to be on top of your radar, how we do it.
We run a solar auction which links the country's top solar providers with the right projects and creates competitive tension for buyers while also giving the solar providers instant outcomes.
This win win environment has already seen some huge systems being installed at a fraction of initial quotes importantly all should be back to the smart monitoring system so you can record your baseline and continue to attract throughout.
Sometimes you're building the case for change.
You might need support in the form of killer tools or collateral of course will be here to have a chat with you if you ever need it.
If you're just looking for that collateral to get you started to start the conversation.
Uh, some of these killer information is going to definitely be worthwhile.
So we've got navigating a dynamic energy landscape, which is an executive level briefing that cuts through the noise and helps you navigate the energy landscape, which as you know, is forever evolving.
Net zero insights document which takes learnings from our net zero surveys and makes them publicly available.
You can see what other businesses are thinking and to know you aren't alone in the challenges being faced.
As mentioned earlier.
We're looking to build on this.
So I'd appreciate if you can complete the survey at the end of the webinar.
And finally we've got an interactive Net zero plan.
So start by recording your business's goals, perform a stock take of where you're performing and what you need to work on again.
We can help you walk through this document if required.
Awesome.
Thanks Tim.
So guys, one thing I'd just like to highlight is that october 2020 document is being replaced.
This october will be released at the end of the month that the energy efficiency expo will actually be released by the new south Wales government's new treasurer Matt keene, who is still holding the portfolio for energy and environment.
And we're really excited to support businesses with that.
So what does that mean? Well really your net zero places.
Energy management is the place to start.
It's where the bulk of your emissions are.
And it's the simplest and easiest, simplest easiest and cheapest way to reduce your emissions.
So what does that mean opportunity first start with energy efficiency but definitely move to demand management, renewable energy opportunities behind the meter as well.
You need to take a holistic approach to that and energy efficiency is really central to that.
But you need to look at all of the opportunities across the board.
So how do you actually do it? Or you plan, you do your check and you act.
So it's really, really important that you were going through that process.
And one of the simplest ways that you can ensure that you are doing and that you're acting is by tying KPs for both your executive team and also the energy team that's on the ground to actually get these upgrades up when you've got that clear line of responsibility where the executive team and indeed the people on the ground that are doing the upgrades have to realize the savings.
It means that you actually do get some really good traction.
So really quick summary energy management is your place to start.
And the easiest opportunity for that is energy efficiency if you want to learn more about how you can get your business onboard.
Indeed, TIM and I will be happy to take lots of questions.
One last thing, forgot to forget, forgot to mention.
So importantly, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering can I get a bit of help for this.
So there's two places that I would recommend you start the Australian government's Grant connect page with all of the Australian government programs.
So the small businesses amongst us, there's a program called the Business Energy advice Program which supports businesses with both their energy procurement, but also minor energy efficiency upgrades.
And they can connect you with service providers that can go beyond that as well.
The other place to look would be energy briefing dot org dot au forward slash current dash grants.
So the ec has a website which basically has a bucket load of resources for businesses looking to manage their energy and get control of the Net zero plan.
So one of those opportunities is a complete listing of all of the grants that are currently available across all the jurisdictions and I encourage you to look there, but I want to reiterate that not all energy efficiency upgrades are capital intensive, there's a lot of opportunity to do things just in house quite simply as a really good example of that.
It's actually really useful to walk your site and have a look.
And As the good example, I'd like to mention, there is a big bank that about a decade ago when they started looking at reducing their energy consumption and their emissions, they realized that they were leaving their lights and their air conditioning on all weekend when the store was closed and all evening.
So they had their air conditioning and their lights on 24/7.
The sheer amount of energy savings they have made by turning off all of the lights in all of their branches all around the country when the bank actually closes is substantial.
Now we might all think this is stupid that, you know, everybody knows to turn off the light when they leave, but the reality is, is in a business, people don't give a stuff, they walk away and go, somebody else is going to do that.
So actually actively having a look about what are the things that you're doing, where you're just simply wasting energy and sometimes that's just not turning off equipment when it's not in use.
Now, you can't turn off everything, but there's really big opportunities here from just walking around your site and looking at it and another opportunities to maybe get one of your a business that you know, you're friendly with, get them to walk around your site and you can walk around, there's and you can share experiences and you're probably both doing some different things.
So that's a really good place to note that obviously some of this is capital intensive, but oftentimes, especially in the sme space, there are lots of little winds to be made, but not even energy efficiency just by turning things off.
Funny, you talk about the stock take as a parent, I find that's what I do every night in my house.
I just wander around and turn everything off and tIM.
That's because you're responsible for the electricity bill turning everything off.
But in an average business you don't have the Ceo on the ground going, I'm going to turn off every light correct.
You obviously have the energy actions.
He's all about it.
So there you go.
Um, so yeah, at this stage we thought we'd get into a bunch of questions as they've come through.
So if everyone who's asked thank you very much, I'll just stop sharing so I can read them.
How about that? Where are we? Have a question from Brian? A client has a small to mid sized manufacturing plant around about 80 people with 1100 solar panels installed about two years ago, but no battery.
Can they convert the system to include battery? Thanks again, brian this short answer that one is yes, you can, you can certainly, most solar systems can be retrofitted with battery.
Um, yeah, in terms of that process, just a matter of just reaching out to us and we can link you with the correct providers.
Holy, anything that's worth adding from your end on that one.
I think it's a really good point to note.
It's pretty simple to move most across.
I'd be talking with your client, not just about your renewable solutions, but also trying to deep dive into what are there other opportunities? It's a good opportunity to use a battery for demand management and potentially get some additional savings around that as well really.
I've got one here which looks like it's got an answer to.
So so everyone for everyone's notice Ed Hanna who is one of the founders of energy action.
He's actually on here answering some questions so thank you very much for that Ed just in case anyone hasn't seen that.
The question has came has come through saying how does emissions offsets applying the A.C.T
Where there is a state level 100% renewable electricity procurement Is a 100% electric building in Canberra.
Net zero emissions.
So Ed's reply, do you want to crack holly and see what you're probably say? There's two things here.
You've got operations.
You can be net zero in your operations but can you be net zero holistically.
So there's a good conversation around embedded emissions in construction and the likes and this is all really important.
And that conversation that the part that I mentioned earlier on scope 12 and three emissions scope one and two are really your operations and part of scope three of your operations as well.
So it's quite common to see businesses initially commit to just dealing with scope one and two.
But if you really want to get to net zero, you've got to hit off that other piece.
Now it really depends.
Building to building Theoretically if all of the electricity and presuming no gas or it could be green hydrogen that we're not yet there in any situation you could have 100% net zero operations but at present there is a lot of embodied carbon in pretty much everything.
And that will change with time.
And you've seen some really interesting investments from government and research institutes in ways to De-carbonized steel for construction and cement.
And there's some really interesting opportunities here and it's probably worthwhile noting if you're hearing people talking about, well we can't be carbonized, there's certain things we can't do.
The really important thing is all of the energy stuff is already affordable And as I've just said that 80% of the opportunity now, it's about 70% globally.
All of that cost competitive can do it right right away.
There's good opportunities.
The price of batteries is dropping significantly, which is dropping down electric vehicle prices significantly as well.
Indeed, we're anticipating that electric vehicles will be cost competitive with internal combustion engines in Australia within five years.
This is quite substantial.
So whilst there are others other areas that are a bit too expensive at the moment, like green hydrogen investment from government and industry will move that and we will be able to reach net zero if we hit off the easy stuff like energy sooner rather than later.
One of the questions that come through which I will be happy to feel it comes through from Wendy.
Why is a recent better than corporate power purchase agreement? What was the issue for some.
So I probably should start by clarifying with that is you can never put a blanket rule to say one procurement method is better for a customer over another.
It all comes down to the individual client and what they're actually looking for and what their outcomes are, what they're even trying to achieve.
What we've, what we've done is we've we've put together a document a number of years ago called The powers and perils of a corporate P.
P.
A.
Um The powers are certainly there.
In terms of you've got an identifiable resource, you've got perceived, you know, pricing certainty for for a particular period of time.
The challenge that we found is a lot of clients just weren't simply Willing to lock in a 10 or 15 year retail contract Because with that you've got firming costs, you've got sleeping charges, you got a bunch of unknowns um practical space as well.
You've also got CFO moves on from a business and no one comes in in five years and says what's the deal with this 10-15 year contract we've decided.
Um So the so we'll definitely linked paper.
Yeah, we'll definitely send that through when the post is the powers and perils if you wish, I'll get your details and I'll send you an email directly if you like.
Um But it's just it's it's it links you to an identifiable green Power resource.
But it doesn't come with, the complexity of a large corporate p P.
A where you know, it's they're all very much individual contracts, you know, we're talking hundreds and hundreds of pages, lawyers get involved on both sides from our point of view, it's making it simple, transparent and just easier.
Hopefully that answers.
But yeah, I hope you have a chat after this if you like Wendy.
Ah got another question here, what have we got here? A lot of energy management systems system info seemed to focus on medium to large business.
Do you have any tips specific for small business with limited employees? Yep.
So alexander, it's it's the same process but you can simplify it.
So the bigger of a business you are, the more infrastructure you need because you've obviously got multiple sites, you've got multiple employees.
But if you're a small business, if your sub training you can still operate the same thing, you need to start with measuring your energy so that you can make a plan.
A really good example of that is for office based businesses.
They can get a neighbor's rating which says this is our energy consumption and this is how we benchmark it against other businesses in an equivalent sized office.
Now that isn't available for that type of rating isn't available, So in a manufacturing sense, but just getting that baseline data of your energy consumption and then speaking with someone like energy action or a different energy services company if you need to but of course energy action is great.
Um you definitely have a chat with ever going, is this reasonable for our energy consumption and where are the opportunities? So you still need to do a bit of planning with some baseline information and then you can look at the opportunities and what's really important is in a small business that you are making sure that you're having that conversation, whether you've got five employees or 20 or 2000, that people are aware of what you're trying to achieve and why and what the benefits are and what that means.
You've got that baseline data, you can choose to do a couple of different upgrades and then the next year you choose to do some more and some of those things will be low cost and some of those things might cost a little bit more.
But that upfront cost can definitely be upset.
And we're starting to see more and more banks giving better financing opportunities and indeed you can tap into things like the Clean Energy Finance Corporation if you've got something more complicated, so that's less likely in a small business.
But I definitely recommend for small businesses.
The business energy advice program is a great place to start.
It's a free resources backed by the commonwealth government with business Australia running it and they're a really good opportunity to get you on that journey of planning initially.
So then you can do the upgrades and check them and act to make sure that they're working.
So definitely alexander don't be scared about this, anybody can jump on the train.
You just need to start with measuring what your energy consumption is.
The measuring side of things is important and this is pretty much a shameless self applied for us, but we have a product in place that will actually allow you to measure your emissions um and measure your consumption in in near real time.
So you have a chat with us and we can link you through to what that actually looks like if you like.
Um another question that came through from Julia, have you found energy brokers aware and up for working with Reese's the beauty of the reason from our point of view is this is a product in which we um running with and it's being developed by energy action.
Um so yeah, I can't speak for other other brokers, but that's a product that we have started.
We are pioneering in that space.
We are trying to simplify the whole energy buying process.
Um so if you're looking for a renewable, renewable backed energy supply agreement in the current market, we are the people who speak to in regards to that.
I hope that's what that answer is.
If you have anything specific around that, please, please send that through.
Um, here's one from Gavin.
Are there any free or low cost energy management systems to start our journey on to measure free behavior, change energy efficiency improvements, savings, measured could lead to reinvestment funds to replace equipment for greater energy efficiency where there are no funds available.
This is initial investment.
Yeah, I'll start with the end of that one.
So certainly, um low cost management systems, I will talk you through to our monitoring service which is, as I said before, energy metrics that will give you that baseline indication of what your consumption is, what your emissions are.
There's a whole suite of other things that come along with that.
So it reviews your network tariffs.
It does build validations the sort of day to day stuff that you don't want to get involved in, that that we do.
Um, That's where I would start for any low cost systems holly from your end.
Is there anything that's that's worth adding there? So again, small businesses, I would definitely go to the business energy advice program.
It's good opportunity.
It is free with the initial support and then you can move your way up if you are an office based business city switch, which is a program run by the capital cities with backed investment from the new south Wales government.
So that's capital cities around the country.
They've got some really good programs and resources for helping you with that journey.
Indeed, the Ec and city switch released a guide last year around where the opportunities are for office based businesses and indeed some of those resources to actually help you measure are available through cities which the reality is that there's a bunch of smes within the energy services space like energy action that can help in relatively low cost ways to get you started and then some of those initial low cost pieces can help you build up.
One thing I would say, tim is, Ed has answered a question About the New South Wales government meeting their aspirational target to halve emissions by 2030.
Probably really important to note that that question is asking whether or not the government's going to force businesses and local councils to do that by carrot away stick.
It would be fair to say that if you're looking at the political climate in Australia over the last 10 years around energy and carbon, there's definitely a move towards doing things with a carrot rather than a stick.
However, you do have some sticks in place in New south Wales victoria South Australia and the key for the retailers around improving energy efficiency and in New south Wales, you'll actually see the energy efficiency scheme, which is the energy savings scheme is being transformed and indeed, Minister came last year committed to that being extended out to 2050.
So what, how that scheme works is the retailers have to reduce the emissions for energy efficiency programs.
So effectively there is a a market in which upgrades are done for households and businesses and the emission savings are sold in an open market that the retailers have to buy because they need to submit them to the new south Wales government and if they don't submit them, they have to pay a fine.
So it's cheaper for them to incentivize energy upgrades.
And it's really important to note that that type of mechanism, this is not in any way a stick, it is a carrot for businesses and households and it's the type of thing that you would anticipate and indeed we do anticipate because the new south Wales government has pushed out that scheme to 2050.
We're anticipating that ramping up to really support the decarbonization of new south Wales and we're seeing similar activities in south Australia and victoria and the especially, but I'm sure the rest of the states and territories will follow suit because they need to actually be able to deliver on their commitments and they know what time we got 11 39 potentially.
Final question will come through um Kirsty.
How does this work for agricultural businesses like bakeries or dairies.
So Kirstie, I would recommend that you go to energy briefing dot org dot au where you will find a sector spotlight for farms where we've actually got case study of both the piggery and the dairy of their opportunities.
So in both of these situations, they've had an expert come out and do an energy audit, which is where they look for opportunities to reduce energy consumption and in the case of the piggery, there's some really good opportunities to do things around renewable energy that's not solar or PV because of the sheer amount of effluent you get from the pigs and you can use that effluent to obviously make a bio gas generator.
And that's a really good opportunity in terms of reducing energy costs because that bio gas can be used on site for other purposes.
So there's lots of opportunities that can be the obvious basic one of putting some solar PV on your roof, But it can also be really thinking in the ag space pumps to move water around.
They use a bucket load of electricity.
It's often easy to reduce the energy consumption by 50%.
And these types of upgrades, they do pay for themselves.
So really important to note there's good opportunities and I recommend you go to energy briefing dot org dot au to find that sector spotlight and have a bit of a read through about what those opportunities are.
Similarly, there's a sector spotlight there for manufacturers and also for office based businesses.
So for those of you that are starting your journey and you're looking at what the opportunities are.
They're really good guides that basically lay out, how do you find the opportunities, what are the common opportunities and where do you go for help? And some of that help is definitely working with tim and his team.
Yeah, we actually worked with a lot of fisheries, um, sort of around this space, um, when we do that procurement for them.
Um, and they've got a good mix of, of large and small market accounts.
Um, these these particular entity is also looking at solar as well, which hold it as you mentioned, there is challenges that come along with that, particularly because some theories just don't have physical roofs at all.
So we're looking at ground mount systems.
Um, there's a particular ways in which the cable needs to be laid just because of obviously all the access that comes along with the batteries, but we're certainly strong enough space and we deal with a lot of businesses that space.
So um, yeah, another free plug come and talk to us.
Um, message from TIM.
What is the best utility control slash energy management platform or tool on the market for large organizations? How much should a subscription cost per year? Cool.
Is someone who works for energy action, energy actions.
Energy metrics is the best utility control and management platform on the market.
Um, of course I'm going to say that.
But realistically it's it's a measurement of all your consumption, a measurement of your emissions.
Um, it's it's it's the housing of the data as well as giving you information around using the data and the analytics to actually build a plan for the future.
Along with that comes individuals who, you know, you're not just getting the data presented to you in a portal, which looks cool.
But you've got individuals who are monitoring that for you and and and having that conversation and you've just got that person on the side you can pick up the phone and speak to.
Um again, Holy may have other suggestions on that one as well as somebody that works from Industry Association that supports a lot of businesses that do have competing products.
I'm not going to recommend one, but there's a lot out there.
And the other thing to note is there's a lot of opportunity in Australia.
We are nowhere near as energy efficient as our developed country neighbors.
They are all beating us.
Um, so there's a lot of opportunity and I'm really happy to say that there is great opportunity for energy action and the rest of my members to be supporting all of the businesses out there with reducing their energy consumption.
I genuinely, if you're looking for that type of opportunity, I recommend, you know, talking with a couple of different guys.
And of course tim is a great place person to have their first chat with.
Beautiful.
So we've seen no more questions coming through in the Q and A.
There's a few things going on in the chat, which is really cool.
It's like Katie is sharing the slides through to us, sharing the links through to energy briefing spotlights as you forgot somebody in real time.
Updating stuff.
Nice one.
Thank you, Katie.
Um it has put a few notes guns, I've got you, I've got your details.
I'll give you a call at some stage today.
Um, and that looks that looks about it.
I'd probably just note that Rachel's comment in the chat about actually going onto your retailers dashboard is a really good, easy place to start.
So in following up on that, what a small businesses do.
You've got your energy data already, like your retailer is charging you for it so you can see it and if you have a chat with somebody that knows what they're talking about and again, that can be a free option through the business energy advice program.
They can be like you're doing well, you're not doing well.
Here's the common opportunities.
So I'd really encourage you to do what Rachel said, go onto your dashboard for your retailer and then give the business energy advice program a buzz for that free option for those smaller businesses.
Now, for the larger ones, there's a wealth of experts out there and I'm sure tim is about to tell you a little bit more about them.
I'm just gonna go through from Julia.
I'll quickly take your notes before I close off just so I don't lose it.
Three really no dramas.
I've got your tools as well, Julia.
Um, so as you can see, holly's super, super enthusiastic in this space.
We could probably talk for the next three hours and she'll take the spotlight and run with it.
Um, but in the meantime, thank you very much, holly, first and foremost for attending and helping present this webinar.
Thank you everybody else for attending.
And for your questions we'll send you will link you to the survey.
Yeah, but following that, we'll also send you all of that collateral.
But please pick up the phone.
Don't be a stranger and you can help cheers guys.
Thank you.
Thanks so much, tim.
Thanks everyone.
