Sirius Campus publishes results of its "Climate Change Monitor

Source: Energy & Management Powernews, June 21, 2022

Increasing numbers of medium-sized companies want to invest in the energy refurbishment of their premises and thus save energy. This shows the current "Monitor zur Klimawende".

The responses of 600 decision-makers for facility management of small and medium-sized enterprises - that is, companies with up to 249 employees - let the analysts of the Cologne-based consulting institute Sirius Campus into their "Monitor zur Klimawende". They claim that the results are representative; the survey was conducted in September of last year. Now the Cologne published the results.

According to the Campus, the evaluation was carried out with the help of a value-added weighting, in order to let the investment potential of the few medium-sized companies (2% based on the number of all SMEs) flow more strongly into the overall evaluation (37% based on the value added of all SMEs) according to their turnover.

At the end of 2021, i.e. even before the current energy price increases, more than a third (37%) were therefore planning one or more investments for energy-saving measures in the next five years. The willingness to invest is particularly high among medium-sized companies. More than half (54%) see major opportunities in energy refurbishments, mainly to save energy (36%) and support climate protection (30%). However, monetary incentives such as taking advantage of government subsidies (28%) and the general motive of saving money (28%) are also driving decision-makers in SMEs to consider investing in energy retrofits. "We assume that in the context of the current energy price increases, the willingness to invest has increased even further," says Dr. Oliver Gaedeke, Managing Director of Sirius Campus. The review for comparison: in the past five years, only about one tenth (12%) of the nearly 2.57 million small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany had invested in at least one measure for the energy refurbishment of their own operations.

CO2 pricing and promotion of e-mobility show effect

As one of the most important drivers to engage in energy-saving measures, the market researchers call the acquisition plans a climate-friendly vehicle fleet. Purchase incentives and lower operating costs for all-electric cars are considered the "strongest motivators" at the SME decision-making level. Around a quarter of companies each plan to purchase fully electric cars (27%) or plug-in hybrid cars (37%) in the next twelve months. Other incentives, such as feed-in tariffs for photovoltaics or hydrogen technology, also encourage SMEs to look at the options for their operations and start making plans.Equally effective are rules to map community costs, as is done through the CO2 pricing of the Fuel Emissions Trading Act. Particularly larger companies with high energy consumption develop and plan energy-saving measures on the basis of this.

However, interest and energy-saving plans alone are not enough for actual implementation, according to the Cologne researchers. Only 30% of the interested SMEs have actually implemented one of the four measures studied in the past, namely thermal insulation, heating renewal, regenerative water heating or electricity generation.

Visible advice as "tipping the scales"

The most important drivers for actual implementation are energy efficiency or energy consultants. However, in the past five years, only around one tenth (13%) of companies willing to invest had used this expert advice. This gap is compensated by other consulting offers - for example of energy suppliers (20%), KfW (18%), craftsmen (17%), national promotion institutes (15%), BAFA (14%) architects and building contractors (9%), Federal Ministry of Economics (8%) or the German energy agency (7%).

The consulting discussion to the technical conversion turns out according to the evaluation of the energy monitor ever more as extremely critical phase in the decision process. Optimally according to the Cologners a consultation takes place locally. In this an individual planning, recommendation for manufacturers and craftsmen and support for applications would have to be offered. The calculation of the amount of energy that can be saved and the associated CO2 reduction is then an equally important content, but this is only conveyed in one fifth (18%) of the consultations. Substantially more frequently a detailed cost calculation (39%) takes place, which affected then under circumstances negatively the investment.

The complete, approximately 200-page "monitor to the climatic change" is available over the Internet side of Sirius Campus.

Autor: Davina Spohn