As we welcome in the New Year I think we are all hopeful that 2011 will bring with it more good news than 2010 did.
As far as the industry is concerned there would appear to be a general feeling that we have reached a turning point, with many projects which had previously been put on hold once again starting to show signs of action.
But aside from that, one of the main areas where we can all expect to see movement is in energy management. As fuel prices continue to rise, companies are becoming ever more energy savvy and, having learnt vital lessons over the last 12 months, are now starting to take the subject of energy saving more seriously.
There are numerous ways to save energy which range from simply turning off lights to the installation of a full building management system, but whichever way you choose I think everyone will agree that the sooner the better.
You can still walk around many major towns and cities at night and see lights blazing long after the employees have gone home for the evening, and despite the fact that energy saving is a very high profile topic, some people it seems are failing to take notice.
When the Government changed the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES) in the October Spending Review there was a lot of unrest within the industry due to the fact that it effectively became a carbon tax. But as we can’t do anything to change that then we have to look at ways of driving down carbon emissions and saving energy.
One of the major challenges facing the industry is understanding the current energy usage in order to make savings. This isn’t an easy task but it is one which we must embrace in order to make the necessary changes. As an industry we have met and overcome many challenges in the past few years so now let’s work towards the next one.
See you next month
Tracey