Most businesses can cut 20 to 30% of energy costs before spending anything on new technology. DETA Consulting’s Jonathan Pooch explains where the waste is hiding.
What’s happening: Jonathan Pooch, Managing Director of engineering and energy advisory firm DETA Consulting, argues that most businesses are chasing net zero from the wrong end.
Why this matters: With energy volatility returning and margins under pressure, small businesses cannot afford to wait for a long-term transition plan to deliver results.
Energy bills are climbing, margins are thinning, and many small business owners are wondering whether a solar panel or a sustainability strategy is the answer. Jonathan Pooch, Managing Director of DETA Consulting, an Australia and New Zealand engineering and energy advisory firm, has a more immediate suggestion: start by finding out what you are already wasting.
“Most industrial sites can unlock 20 to 30 per cent energy savings before spending anything on new technology,” Pooch says.
The same logic applies to businesses of any size. And in the current environment, the stakes are real.
The wrong starting point
In late 2024, the Australian Energy Regulator reported wholesale electricity prices surged to levels more than 50 times higher than normal at several points. For businesses, spikes like these flow directly into operating costs and make forward planning harder. At the same time, ABS data showed a 0.5 per cent fall in multifactor productivity across the market sector in 2024 to 2025, with more than half of major industries going backwards.
In an environment where margins are already thin, Pooch says too many businesses are approaching energy the wrong way. Decarbonisation strategies, where they exist, often begin with technology wish lists or public commitments rather than a clear-eyed look at current operations.
“When capital becomes more expensive and conditions more uncertain, companies discover those plans were built from the wrong end,” he says. “The starting point should have been operational discipline.”
Where the waste hides
Operational reviews, Pooch says, consistently uncover the same problems across businesses of all sizes: equipment running when it is not needed, compressed air leaks, operations running to fixed timetables instead of real-time demand, and meter data that is collected but never actually looked at.
None of these fixes require a capital investment. None of them attract a ribbon-cutting. But they deliver some of the fastest, lowest-risk cost reductions available, and they do it before a single dollar is spent on new technology.
“No one cuts a ribbon on fixing leaks or optimising run times,” Pooch says. “Yet these measures deliver some of the fastest, lowest risk emissions reductions available. And they strengthen the financial case for every step that follows.”
Energy, he points out, may not be the largest cost line for most small businesses. Labour and materials usually take that position. But energy is often the least well managed, which makes it one of the most accessible levers for protecting margins right now.
“Production teams understand how their product is made, but far fewer understand the energy required to make it,” he says. “That gap is where both money and emissions disappear.”
Fix first, invest second
The sequencing Pooch advocates is not ideological. It is commercial. Bank the easy savings first, establish a credible baseline, then invest in deeper solutions from a position of financial strength rather than hope.
For businesses that do eventually want to pursue solar, electrification or other transition technologies, starting with efficiency makes every subsequent investment more defensible. Savings are measurable, baselines are real, and capital is allocated with discipline rather than guesswork.
“When transition plans begin with efficiency, everything becomes more resilient,” he says. “Savings are measurable. Baselines become credible. Capital is allocated with discipline. And most importantly, emissions reductions survive economic pressure instead of evaporating when conditions shift.”
The broader point Pooch is making is one that small business owners will recognise immediately, even if the language of decarbonisation feels distant from their day-to-day.
Australia’s national conversation about energy tends to focus on hydrogen, large-scale renewables and electrification. Those technologies matter at scale. But for most businesses, the more urgent question is simpler. “Are we wasting the energy we already pay for?” Pooch asks.
Given weak productivity growth and persistent energy volatility, he argues this has moved well beyond a sustainability question. It is now a straightforward competitiveness issue, and one that does not require a boardroom strategy to address.
“Sustainability that cannot withstand economic pressure is not sustainable at all,” he says. “Remove waste first, establish a real baseline, bank the savings, then invest in technology with confidence.”
For small business owners watching their power bills and wondering where to start, Pooch’s message is direct. The answer is probably already somewhere on your floor.
Jonathan Pooch is the Managing Director of DETA Consulting, an Australia and New Zealand engineering and energy advisory firm.
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