Services and industry sectors are responsible for 30% of the UK’s total energy consumption

The industrial sector produces 27 per cent more energy and 17 per cent more emissions than the services sector, but its energy bills are 5% lower

Large businesses of over 250 employees account for 45% of non-domestic and non-transportation energy consumption in the UK.

Energi Mine, the blockchain and AI powered business that rewards energy efficient behaviour, today announced results of its analysis of UK business energy consumption figures*.

From a top down perspective, the overall energy consumption by UK businesses is falling, with small (50> employees) and ‘micro’ (10> employee) companies reducing their overall energy consumption by almost 10GWh since 2006. Medium and large businesses have also made modest reductions since 2013, but very large companies of over 1000 employees have plateaued since 2014, in tandem with the UK’s slowdown of overall energy consumption reduction**.

With 97% of businesses in the UK classed as small or micro, the news that they achieved a 14% proportional decrease in electricity consumption and a 15% reduction in gas consumption seems like it should be cause for celebration. Unfortunately, although they account for such a huge proportion of UK businesses, these smaller organisations only account for 27% of overall business energy consumption. A mere 0.1% of businesses in the UK (those that employ 250 people or more) consume 45 per cent of the total energy in the industrial and service sectors. These businesses managed to reduce their electricity consumption by 12% and reduce their gas consumption by only 11% since 2006. This indicates that large enterprises are lagging behind their more nimble counterparts when it comes to saving energy.

Businesses face a wide range of costs for the energy they use to deliver goods and services. These costs can vary significantly between different industries and businesses, for example the energy consumption of businesses in the manufacturing sector is much higher than the service industry, and many larger businesses are dependent on high energy consumption to function. Regardless of which sector a business belongs to however, opportunities to address inefficiencies and ultimately save energy and reduce costs are rife.

The four main energy saving drivers identified by the government’s reports are: policy and changes to business energy demands for economic reasons; building energy efficiency through improved insulation, ventilation and lighting; improving industrial process energy efficiency with technology such as heat recovery; and finally heat decarbonisation. Of all of these, policy changes to business energy demands are predicted to be the biggest saver, accounting for an estimated 45,000 GWh of potential energy savings. This is where Energi Mine’s unique rewards system can assist. The act of moderating temperature in an office, lighting a shop or cooking food at a restaurant is directly controllable by companies and individuals, and presents a clear opportunity to save energy, which often goes unrealised.

Energi Mine’s reward platform can be applied to existing businesses in order to reduce their energy consumption by incentivising employees to care about it directly. They do this by providing a financial incentive for businesses and consumers to save energy with a blockchain based rewards system. Energi Mine provides its utility token, EnergiToken (ETK) to consumers and businesses in exchange for them engaging in energy saving behaviours such as using public transportation, purchasing energy efficient appliances to reducing energy consumption.

ETK can then be used as a means of payment through the EnergiToken Rewards app, part paying energy bills, charging electric cars or even be exchanged for fiat currency. As ETK has financial value it creates a ‘profit’ motivation for consumers to conserve energy, resulting in people who are naturally motivated to save energy due to an associated financial reward. The underlying blockchain technology and use of smart contracts ensures complete transparency and trustworthiness for all Energi Mine users.

Omar Rahim, CEO of Energi Mine said: “In a market flooded with theoretical blockchain projects, Energi Mine is delivering a physical solution to a real-world problem at the heart of the energy sector, creating long term change among energy users. Long-term positive environmental change can only be achieved by altering people’s attitudes with a carrot rather than a stick. By offering a financial reward for positive energy actions, we can leverage the association to change what starts as conscious decision to make the right choices, into unconscious reflexes.”

Based on the app’s reward mechanism, Energi Mine has begun building partnerships with major corporations and organisations, to help them reduce their energy consumption and financially reward their employees for doing so. One of the current UK partners, the Energy Manager’s Association, works with some of the largest companies and energy consumers in the UK, including Network Rail, who are currently conducting trials of Energi Mine’s Ethereum-based blockchain platform.

For more information about Energi Mine and its energy-saving ETK reward scheme, or to become a partner, please visit www.energitoken.com, follow on twitter at @EnergiMine or join the Energi Mine telegram group