What Is ESOS And Why Is It Important for Large Businesses

As a business owner, you will no doubt be familiar with the huge impact energy saving has, on not only your bills, but also your company’s carbon footprint (for the better, of course). However, if you own a large business, you may also be aware of the introduction of the mandatory energy saving scheme, ESOS. But, do you know what ESOS really is? And do you know how it will benefit your business?

What is ESOS?

ESOS is the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme. A compulsory energy assessment scheme, designed to ensure that big, energy hungry businesses, are running as energy efficiently as possible. The assessment audits the energy used by your business, both within the building itself, as well as any transport usage, and identifies any areas where energy usage could be reduced. It is then up to the individual business as to whether they implement the recommendations.

Who Is Applicable?

ESOS is only required for large organisations. A ‘large organisation’ is defined as a company with more than 250 employees or who have an annual turnover of 38.9 million pounds or a balance sheet total of 33.4 million pounds or more. It is estimated that the scheme will affect around 10,000 organisations in the UK.

What Are The Benefits?

Whilst mandatory government schemes can often be greeted with much consternation as one envisages mountains of paperwork and red tape to contend with, this scheme has actually been designed to help your business. ESOS not only helps raise awareness of energy consumption issues, but it also ensures that your company is running as energy efficiently as possible. This has two significant benefits; helping to reduce your carbon emission and lower your energy bills. Essentially, ESOS is win-win – you are helping to make the planet greener whilst reducing your outgoings, which will have an impact on your business’s margins.

When Must ESOS Be Implemented?

The initial deadline of ESOS has been and gone (December 2015) and all companies involved in the scheme are required to carry out assessments every 4 years in order to comply. We are now in Phase 2 of ESOS. The phases are dated as follows:

Phase                    Qualification Date           4 Year Compliance Phase                             Compliance Date

Phase 1                 31^st December 2014        6^th December 2011 – 5^th December           5^th December 2015

2015

Phase 2                 31^st December 2018        6^th December 2015 – 5^th December          5^th December 2019

2019

Phase 3                 31^st December 2022        6^th December 2019 – 5^th December          5^th December 2023

2023

How Can MSL Help?

At MSL we are on hand to help ensure that your business is ESOS compliant so you don’t have to worry. We will provide you with a registered ‘Lead Assessor’ who is on hand to guide your through the entire process. This can include helping you collate all the energy data required by ESOS, including the energy consumed by your facility, transport and industrial processes. They can also define your ‘de minimis energy consumption’ – a legal ruling that allows you to exclude 10% of your total energy consumption from your data. The Lead Assessor can then carry out your ESOS assessment and submit it to the Environment Agency.

Making sure your company is energy efficient should be one of your top priorities, and one any large businesses has a responsibility to uphold. Compliance with ESOS will not only reduce your company’s energy bills but it will have a positive impact on the environment too. And MSL are here to help you every step of the way. We are also able to provide you with any other relevant energy audits as part of our compliance programme, ensuring that you are compliant with all energy legislation, not just ESOS.