Austin, TX, 2015-9-16 — /EPR Retail News/ — Today, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) introduced its second Retail Energy Management Report, a resource for companies to compare energy management programs across the industry and identify opportunities for progress. The report was released prior to the opening of RILA’s 2015 Retail Sustainability Conference, now in its eighth year.
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 both of these areas of focus. Earlier this year,RILA received a $750,000 grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) for expansion of its financial management program focus area. The program is sponsored by Schneider Electric, Altenex, and Wipro EcoEnergy.
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 twenty-three energy dimensions, as identified in RILA’s Energy Management Maturity Matrix.
“This Report continues to be a valuable tool to track the industry’s progress in energy management practices over time, and to benchmark companies’ programs. It is our hope that this report helps retailers identify even more opportunities for growth and provides them with the resources needed to achieve their energy program goals,” said Erin Hiatt, senior manager of sustainability and compliance at RILA.
From the results of the survey, RILA identified four notable trends:
- Programs Continue to Improve. Even for the activities where retailers are the most mature, continued improvement in the coming years remains a goal.
- Energy managers understand the importance of maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders for effectively managing energy consumption.
- Retail energy management programs can yield the most results by prioritizing and aligning energy goals with other company priorities.
- For each dimension, there is at least one retailer at a “leading” maturity level“As new technologies and approaches evolve, so will energy management strategies and opportunities for research and leading practice sharing. We look forward to continuing to engage retail energy executives as the industry’s energy management programs evolve and mature,” added Hiatt.
You can download both this and last year’s Retail Energy Management Industry Reports at www.rila.org/energy.
RILA is the trade association of the world’s largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers.
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Brian Dodge
Executive Vice President, Communications and Strategic Initiatives
Phone: 703-600-2017
Email: brian.dodge@rila.org