The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), Arlington, Va., has released its second Retail Energy Management Report, a resource for companies to compare energy-management programs across the industry and identify opportunities for progress.Retail Energy Management Report.
The 2015 Retail Energy Management Report was developed under the Retail Energy Management Program, a RILA initiative that focuses on two key opportunities for improving energy performance for retailers: financial management and leased-stores management. The program’s goal is to develop leading practice implementation models, educate the industry, and spur adoption of implementation models for financial management and leased-stores management. Earlier this year, RILA received a $750,000 grant from the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Department of Energy for expansion of its financial management program focus area.
The information in the report was gathered from a 62-question survey of 47 national retail companies about their energy teams, budget and operations. RILA used this information to measure the maturity of respondents’ retail-management programs against 23 energy dimensions, as identified in RILA’s Energy Management Maturity Matrix. From the results of the survey, RILA identified four notable trends: 1. Programs continue to improve. Even for the activities where retailers are the most mature, continued improvement in the coming years remains a goal. 2. Energy managers understand the importance of maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders for effectively managing energy consumption. 3. Retail energy-management programs can yield the most results by prioritizing and aligning energy goals with other company priorities. 4. For each dimension, there is at least one retailer at a “leading” maturity level.
This year and last year’s Retail Energy Management Report can be downloaded at www.rila.org/energy.