Transport and logistics firms who have not yet taken steps to comply with the requirements of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) Regulations 2014 must act now or face up to a £50,000 fine, an expert has warned.
The regulations, brought in as a consequence of the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive, oblige firms with over 250 staff or an annual turnover of over €50m (approximately £36m) and a balance sheet exceeding €43m to have an energy efficiency audit carried out by an appropriately qualified assessor every four years.
Organisations in scope of the regulations must carry out their first ESOS assessment and submit their report to the Environment Agency by 5 December, Robert Anderson, lead assessor at low-carbon technology consultancy Cenex, told Motortransport.co.uk.
It’s not clear how many qualifying transport and logistics firms have yet to act, he said, but many are still unaware of it or wrongly assume it does not apply to the transport sector, he said.
“It has caught a lot of people out,” he confirmed.
Though the regulations only oblige firms to carry out the audit – and not to implement any of the potential energy savings that might be identified – firms would obviously benefit from lower energy expenditure including potential fuel costs savings if they did so, stressed Anderson.
Typically, he added, audits highlight potential energy savings of 5-10%.
A typical audit for a firm with six depots and a 50 strong truck fleet, which would cover both buildings and vehicles, could take around a month to complete. Costs are likely to vary from £10,000 to £20,000 subject to the size and complexity of the operation, added Anderson.
Failing to undertake an audit could cost firms much more, however. “If you don’t do the energy audit, the maximum fine is £50,000,” he warned.
For more information about the regulations, see Cenex's guide on ESOS for more.
