Investing in Sustainability is cheaper than you think

Over the past year, Mitsidi has carried out energy audits on collections of buildings and industrial plants, including corporate buildings, coworking spaces, restaurants, data centers, among others. And the result was the same: investing in sustainability is much cheaper than the market imagines.

“Whether in the commercial or industrial sector, it is possible to achieve at least 10% energy savings without practically investing”.

This is according to André De Dominicis, Mitsidi partner and specialist in industrial energy efficiency

What we see in practice is a lot of money spent on poorly configured systems, with maintenance not carried out on time and the excessive use of “makeshift solutions”.

As incredible as it may seem, this is a more common practice in day-to-day operations than one might imagine. In older buildings, low-cost efficiency measures can represent even greater savings – up to 30%.

“The potential is enormous. However, what we see is the market seeking expensive solutions, such as installing photovoltaic solar panels and replacing machines without reviewing the production or operational process,” says Edward Borgstein, founder of Mitsidi and responsible for developing consumer benchmarking platforms throughout Latin America.

Despite the potential, photovoltaic systems are still not viable on a large scale in commercial and industrial markets, despite the cheaper rates. This should be done at the rate at which the equipment pays back, which has not yet reached excessive levels – between seven and nine years.

Another solution, widely studied by managers, is the migration from the captive market to the free energy market. However, without a long-term study that considers the risks and characteristics of the contracts, the measure becomes ineffective.

WHAT CAN WE CONCLUDE?

Savings with zero-cost measures represent an opportunity to reserve cash for more expensive and complex measures. At the same time, these measures reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately.

Some measures that we found in the industry, for example, achieved payback times of less than 2 months.

"The result surprised even our team, accustomed to finding opportunities with paybacks of less than 1 year”, concludes André.