Potential clients often tell us they commissioned an energy audit but never achieved meaningful savings from it.

About 30% of building energy consumed is wasted, and an energy audit can be a critical step for organizations to begin better managing their utilities, reducing costs, and meeting compliance requirements.

But these organizations often face numerous barriers to effectively implementing audit results: limited staff resources, underperforming software that doesn’t capture or integrate audit findings, competing funding priorities for capital investment, challenges tracking and verifying actual savings, and difficulty winning champions within the organization and sustaining momentum for further improvements.

However, combining the right audit approach with powerful, AI-enabled energy and utility management software that leverages data before, during, and after the audit can help organizations overcome these obstacles to unlock measurable, ongoing cost savings and energy reduction.

Here are five steps to get there.

1. Adopt an Effective Energy and Utility Management Platform Prior to the Audit

While some organizations commission an audit to kick off their energy management programs, it’s ideal to put a software platform in place ahead of time to enable a more affordable and actionable audit.

Not all software is created equally, though. A platform like Nimble Energy’s Empower does the heavy lifting to prepare for and get the most out of an audit; it automates and centralizes utility bill collection and analysis to find anomalies and waste, providing a clear baseline to start the audit, identifying areas of strategic focus, and even creating an evidence-based justification for the audit cost. These outputs allow auditors to focus directly on uncovering the most meaningful savings opportunities, instead of spending time chasing down bills and cleaning data.

Rather than letting an expensive audit report grow stagnant and start collecting dust on a shelf, an AI-powered platform like ours can transform it into a living, breathing document that provides continual direction and value for an organization’s broader energy management practice.

2. Identify Your Goals and Focus on the Biggest Opportunities First

Using existing data and/or directives, clarify the driver of the audit: cost savings, compliance requirements, or stakeholder engagement, for instance. Having a clear objective improves the chances that the audit will provide usable insights aligned with your goals.

Plan to ask the auditor to focus on the largest savings opportunities that your energy and utility management platform has already identified.

3. Select the Right Audit Level

Choosing the type of audit based on your goals and budget helps to make sure the scope and costs match your expected outcomes. There are three primary levels of energy audits: 

• Level I—Walkthrough Audit: A preliminary assessment that identifies obvious energy-saving opportunities through a quick inspection and utility bill review. Many small businesses begin with a Level I for scoping. 
• Level II—Detailed Energy Audit: A deeper evaluation involving detailed data collection, equipment review, and financial analysis of energy conservation measures. Mid-size commercial and municipal buildings that are actively considering upgrades and need to plan and budget for them tend to start with a Level II. 
• Level III—Investment-Grade Audit: A comprehensive, engineering-level assessment with detailed financial projections, suitable for securing funding or entering performance contracts. Facilities that are large and complex and/or have multiple energy systems that are pursuing large capital upgrades or third-party financing will often commission a Level III.

4. Choose the Right Audit Firm

Select an experienced firm that understands the specific needs of your sector and can deliver both technical and financial recommendations that fit your funding constraints. 

Look for Certified Energy Managers (CEMs); Professional Engineers (PEs); or American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) audit experience. Check if they’re familiar with EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, local energy disclosure laws, and utility rebate programs.

Make sure the firm you choose is vendor neutral; some energy service companies (ESCOs) push upgrades that benefit them rather than what best aligns with your goals. To avoid conflicts of interest, you may also want to consider seeking firms that separate the audit from equipment sales. And, if possible, pilot an energy audit with one facility before rolling it out across your portfolio.

5. Leverage Data to Boost Efficiency: From Snapshot to Continuous Gains

An audit isn’t the end of the story—it’s a launching point, a snapshot in time. On its own, it captures conditions at a single moment, but when integrated with ongoing data collection and analysis, that combined information forms a strong foundation for continual improvement. The full value emerges when audit insights are regularly refreshed and aligned with clear, action-oriented strategies and objectives.

While energy audits can provide a roadmap for efficiency, lasting results come from pairing these findings with a software platform like ours that not only centralizes, assesses, and benchmarks audit findings but also offers continuous utility data analysis, along with detailed insights, forecasts, and savings recommendations.

These tools give teams the time and clarity to craft flexible and effective sustainability strategies; identify and prioritize high-impact capital upgrades; easily measure and verify whether energy savings are truly realized after upgrades; and, over time, track how closely estimated ROI is achieved. 

This five-step process, combining a strategically planned audit with a high-powered energy and utility management platform, can enable organizations to overcome numerous barriers to deliver real cost savings, fulfill compliance obligations, and build sustainable operations for the future.

Want to learn more about credible audit firms and powerful software to kick off or amp up your energy and utility management practice? Schedule a call.