Business Attitudes Toward Energy Efficiency are Changing

Business investment is rebounding rapidly, reversing directing from the drastic cutbacks and plant closings that began almost two years ago. However, according to Dow Jones Newswires Column, there is a key change to the way many businesses are looking at investments and profits: they are looking to make recent investments in energy efficiency sustainable, as a means of increasing profits in the long run.

According to the article,

A survey done by Siemens shows the shift in attitudes. In 2006, 43% of respondents looked at sustainability as an expense related to regulatory issues, and only 31% viewed it in terms of adding to financial performance. By 2009, 25% of companies looked on sustainability as regulatory-related and a sizable 58% connected it to their bottom line.

This shift in attitude is a logical trend in industrial and business decision-making, and one that ACEEE has argued for for 30 years. Only recently, though, have businesses been getting the message that energy efficiency is a cost-saving investment, and a boon to the bottom line.

A new viewpoint toward energy efficiency by some of the larger corporations can dramatically shift supply chains toward more efficient and sustainable practices, transforming the market toward a more energy productive and less wasteful business culture. Investments in energy efficiency also create jobs, bolstering our national economy and putting Americans back to work.

ACEEE will continue to point to energy efficiency as the cleanest, lowest-cost, most sensible way of promoting economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection.