" selling" energy efficiency(EE)

1.It is not uncommon to deal with rejection when we request someone or any organization to reduce energy costs that they can afford to pay until today.I personally was accused of being stingy by my own family members and some relatives when I started to remind them about being mindful when using electricity at home. It took sometime for them understand my concerns on why we need to stop using energy inefficiently just because we have no problem paying.

2.To certain extent, to get people to have some concerns on how they use energy also require some kind of selling activities too.It needs the right strategy and carefully planned to to enable the key decisions to be made to make it happen. And...how to sell it? I don't think there is any specific way to do it but generally, I believe we can identify some common elements that would be the key selling points. 3. Dollars and cents The main reason that normally will trigger the interest of the top management to pay attention to EE.In some organizations, quantity of cost savings resulted from EE measures will be sufficient for them consider more allocation to get greater savings.Meanwhile,insignificant quantity of energy saved that translated into costs may kill their interest at all.So, if we need to know more about the preference of the top management when we want to link EE to dollars and cents for the company.Investments with the shortest return and significant cost reduction would an ideal package but some finally it depends on how good we sell it to the decision makers.Nothing technical about this but it is so often many failed due to so much attention given in preparing the technical stuff instead of looking into tackling the human parts to sell the EE ideas way up to the top and in the end to get something to kick- off.

4. On the same page Getting the key players on board is another crucial element to push EE all the way up.Everyone and every section or department is using energy but unfortunately not everyone has the same responsibilities in the company to look after energy related issues.Unfortunately too, we can't be alone in championing EE.We need everyone and the real challenge is to get them on the same page with us without affecting their main commitment in the line of their duties.Again here, another right selling strategy is required to convince these key players to commit themselves with little additional burden to them and share the recognitions too later. 5.Exploiting the external factors Legal requirements and changes in the market trends towards energy issues that are related to green, climate change and GHG emission are the factors that I can single out immediately. People may not obey the law but when anything related to legal matters imposed on them, surely they will have to look into it.Some companies may not care so much about green or GHG emmision but when image and reputation at stake to be seen in the eyes of potential market, investors and public at large, this may work to make them to react with some degree of commitment.

6. People in sales or marketing businesses may be able to share more on selling because selling it right in EE is equally important as identifying the EE potentials to save the dollars and cents in a company. 7. Engineers are not only required to come up with attractive EE solutions but also to sell it with attractive package to the top management too.Only that will make the solutions works.

Preparatory Workshop for Registered Electrical Energy Manager (REEM)