John Lewis Partnership is obliged to address the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme, requiring the business to achieve compliance across its estate before December 5th 2015. In order to achieve compliance at best overall value, the Partnership engaged Carbon Credentials to develop an optimised ESOS Plan to include:

• An assessment of the Partnership’s current approach to energy management
• An outline key risks and opportunities
• Communicating the high-impact and valuable next steps to ensure compliance

The optimised approach promotes improved return on investment by cutting energy consumption, costs and emissions. It also provides more robust management information to support the “long term” operational efficiency of the organisation.

At the outset of the process, Carbon Credentials consulted with the Sustainable Development Team at John Lewis Partnership to understand their key objectives.

The ESOS Plan development process subsequently focused on:

• Scoping exercises
• Detailed data analysis
• A risk and opportunity workshop
• Stakeholder interviews

The process permitted structured discussion sessions to evaluate current energy auditing resources and capabilities, reduced compliance uncertainty, increased energy awareness, and helped provide clear guidance and next steps for successful compliance.

The Plan provides a clear understanding of how to progress with the optimisation of the Partnership’s compliance efforts.

• Robust platform to further develop the cohesive energy strategy
• Energy audits which focus on large consuming sites and exclude more complex and unique areas
• Sampling strategy determining number of buildings required for audit and estimated resource requirements
• Leveraged existing knowledge and Partners to encourage ownership and improve performance

“The John Lewis Partnership has worked hard for many years to manage and reduce energy consumption across all Waitrose, John Lewis, and corporate sites. When the ESOS legislation and guidance was released, it was unclear if the requirements would become a burden, taking resources away from the current programme, or an opportunity to leverage engagement and knowledge to ensure we benefited as an organisation from the compliance cost. We appointed Carbon Credentials to create an ‘Optimised ESOS Plan’. This strategic approach would   help us understand the risks, opportunities, and impact of ESOS. Through careful analysis of our data, and consultation with stakeholders from across our sustainable development, maintenance, and fleet management teams. During the process, Carbon Credentials was able to clarify the relative opportunities and risks presented by ISO 50001 and/or Energy Audits as routes to compliance. We now have an Optimised ESOS Plan, which includes options for our Senior Leadership Team to make a decision on. We intend to work with Carbon Credentials going forward on implementation of the Optimised ESOS Plan, and would highly recommend their approach to ensure best value is achieved from ESOS.”

Toby Marlow
General Manager, Sustainable Development