Having insight into sustainable practices is more important than ever to the public, employees, business owners, and investors. A new platform now allows SMEs to track their sustainable energy usage.
How it works
WePower’s Incite platform lets businesses track, guide and better understand how they obtain green energy, where it is used and how they may use it more efficiently.
It tracks green power, that is, the energy obtained from sources that produce no net greenhouse gas emissions, such as wind or solar. Incite’s blockchain software connects directly to the user’s smart meter.
From the user interface, businesses can track how much of their power is drawn from sustainable sources, how much Co2 they are producing through energy consumption and how much additional renewable energy is still to be sourced to meet sustainability ambitions.
If a business is not meeting its sustainable energy goal, the Incite platform can establish contracts between companies and local renewable energy producers.
Why Sustainability is important to business
In a climate-focused world, investors and customers are increasingly interested in how an enterprise’s ambition’s measure up.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors are playing an ever-larger role in investor decisions. For small businesses to remain attractive in the eyes of potential investors, proving your sustainability credentials is vital.
Proving good environmental practice to a customer base is also more important than ever with growing concern and attention to how their purchases impact the planet.
Huda Olsson, Chief Customer Officer at WePower, said “Now more than ever, Australian businesses are under pressure on climate change, thanks to the rise in influence of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investors, and institutional investors backed by domestic superannuation funds using their power to hold companies accountable on their sustainability targets.
“Consumers are increasingly choosing to go green and auditors and regulators are closing in on sustainability claims.”
As the world begins to take emissions mitigation seriously, it is critical that Australian businesses are not left behind. Sureing up green energy consumption avenues now will make transitions away from traditional power easier for small businesses.
Ms Olsson said, “Businesses benefit massively from reducing a reliance on depleting natural resources while becoming resilient against external conditions such as the rising operating costs resulting from climate change.”
Greenwashing
One result of current consumer and investor sentiments on Sustainability is the greenwashing of products and companies. Greenwashing is the practice of representing an environmentally conscious image to the public through marketing while not implementing any real change.
“The world’s biggest companies have gone to lengths to promote sustainability targets that will drive decarbonisation, whilst not necessarily having the means to transparently report on their progress,” said Ms Olsson
She continued: “Companies answering to these stakeholders need to ensure they’re putting the money where their mouth is, and are willing and able to produce transparent sustainability records where required or risk facing “greenwashing” criticism, which can critically impact business on many fronts,”
Greenwashing exploits consumers’ desire to be more environmentally responsible in their purchases. Tools like Incite combat this kind of marketing technique by providing proven and visible action in reducing emissions. Not only do products like Incite confirm action, but they also help businesses to take further action.
Ms Olsson said, “Sustainability is an increasingly important baseline for large businesses and SMBs alike. Ultimately, you can’t improve what you don’t measure, and SMBs can no longer risk their future success by operating blindly in terms of Sustainability.
“For SMBs who take pride in their sustainability status, it pays to have visibility into the state of their consumption to understand how they’re faring, then informing areas of improvement. The added visibility adds credibility to any claims and prepares business owners for reporting obligations that may arise as they scale, or when ESG becomes mandatory in the near future.”
Read more: Sustainability: Solutions require diversity of leadership and talent
Read more: Sydney business invests in green technology
Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
