A decade and a company ago, I took a position selling asset management software to local governments in the U.S. and Canada.
I was excited. U.S. infrastructure wasn’t in the best shape, and I knew preventative maintenance and long-term asset management would hugely benefit these governments’ operations.
But I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. Nor did I realize a similar trend was about to play out with the advent of utility and sustainability management systems.
Although some local governments had started to use asset management platforms in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the uptake had been slow due, understandably, to the sector’s many resource constraints. My first calls to potential American clients were met with responses like these:
“We have too many fires to put out to track that kind of stuff.” Click.
“Our team has been here for years, so we know what needs to be done based on experience.” Click.
“Asset management? Ha. What we need is $20 million for road repairs.” Click.
But when I approached their Canadian counterparts, I got completely different answers; most of them had already adopted asset management platforms and were thrilled with the return on investment.
It took about a hundred calls before I realized why the responses between client bases were so different, even though they faced comparable challenges. Unlike in the U.S. at the time, new provincial new provincial legislation had required these Canadian governments to develop asset management plans, nudging them to implement this type of software.
What had once been a “nice-to-have” had become a “must.”
In the years since, state-level mandates across the U.S. have pushed local governments here to use asset management platforms, as well. Now the benefits are so clear that you’d be hard-pressed to find one that doesn’t.
Today we’re seeing utility and sustainability management systems proceed along this same trajectory. While previously viewed as an optional add-on, it has quickly become a necessity to comply with emerging legislation and policy initiatives and address growing and unprecedented energy challenges.
Today’s Energy Challenges Require More Muscle
Today’s challenges for those managing large building portfolios, such as local governments and school districts, are numerous. And without an effective utility and sustainability management system in place, they’re nearly impossible to navigate:
- Aging and inefficient assets creating massive energy waste
- Steeply increasing utility costs, with the nationwide average price for electricity jumping 22.6% over the last 5 years
- Short-staffed departments forcing facility managers to become energy managers
- State and local leadership setting new energy initiatives, often with little funding attached for implementation
- The need to commission high-dollar audits to comply with these initiatives, without a way to meaningfully preserve and reuse that data
- Increasing energy and emissions reporting requirements from a variety of entities
- Difficulty gaining buy-in from decision makers to move forward with efficiency projects
Additionally, at least 9 states have passed legislation requiring mandatory audits, assessments, and implementation of projects to reduce energy consumption. This trend is gaining steam, with more states expected to follow.
As these energy-related demands, opportunities, and requirements continue to mount, we’re now seeing governments and school districts beginning to embrace utility and sustainability management systems with the same urgency that once propelled the widespread adoption of asset management systems.
The Right System Does the Heavy Lifting for You
Not all utility and sustainability management systems are created equally, though. Some primarily churn out reams of data that aren’t actionable without a large, specialized team to slice and dice the outputs.
The most effective platform does all the heavy lifting. For instance, our AI-enabled Empower system can automate tasks, continuously analyze data, and provide detailed insights and forecasts that significantly reduce the burden on facility and energy teams–freeing resources to transform that intelligence into energy-saving action to meet your own sustainability goals and requirements.
What could your team achieve if you could automate these processes, more effectively prioritize capital upgrades to reduce energy and other utility waste, and easily create evidence-based project justifications for decision makers?
We’ve created a free savings calculator to help you determine the time savings you’d generate using our Empower platform for energy and utility documentation and analytics.
Check it out. And if you like what you see, let’s schedule a quick call to discuss whether our platform could be right for you.