Wednesday 11 November 2020
Clean energy strategies ‘must be holistically integrated with wider commercial objectives’
Clean energy strategies must be holistically integrated with wider commercial objectives.
That's the suggestion from Stuart Duncan, Distributed Energy Strategic Sales Manager at Centrica Business Solutions, who explained how the firm is helping customers manage the challenge of aligning business objectives to an overarching energy strategy.
He said in order to help its customers navigate this "key challenge", Centrica Business Solutions solutions has developed what it calls the Energy Pathway, which is a structured approach for planning decarbonisation journeys through the creation of an end-to-end service to help clients achieve their goals and ambitions.
Mr Duncan noted it covers the design, implementation and management of long-term strategies and ensures energy decisions are aligned with broader business goals.
He said: "I think one of the biggest challenges that's linked to that that we see within organisations is internal alignment across the various stakeholder groups within their business. A key thing that the methodology does is simplify the communication and create a common language for the strategy across the entire business, which helps with that joined-up piece.
"I think for us the energy pathway creates value by creating an execution organisation within our customers' business where all stakeholders are fully aligned with and brought into a strategy that maps to their objectives, both top-down and bottom-up."
He acknowledged that the big challenges of technological advancements and a shifting regulatory landscape. as well as the pace of change that comes with these factors, were creating complexity in the sector, but said the Energy Pathway allows companies to leverage Centrica's expertise in these areas and help them navigate unfamiliar territory.
Mr Duncan emphasised that any strategy made today must be flexible enough to accommodate new changes in the future and noted that working alone, "it's very difficult for customers to juggle core business priorities whilst continuing to build expertise in all areas related to long-term energy strategy".
