WASHINGTON — The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) has announced the launch of a global awards program to recognize organizations using an ISO 50001-certified energy management system to save energy and reduce costs. The CEM Energy Management Leadership Awards are being inaugurated to raise global awareness of the benefits of energy management, helping accelerate implementation to meet organizational, national, and global energy and climate goals.

CEM said organizations adopting the ISO 50001 standard are realizing initial energy improvements of 10 percent or more and achieving net cost savings, mostly through low-cost or no-cost changes to operations. According to an analysis conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, worldwide implementation of ISO 50001 by large energy-using organizations would drive cumulative energy savings of 80 exajoules by 2025, cost savings of $800 billion, and 4,500 Mt of avoided CO2 emissions.

“By integrating energy usage into regular business systems, the ISO 50001 standard has the potential to continually and cost effectively improve the energy performance of industrial and commercial organizations,” said Dave Turk, deputy assistant secretary for international climate and technology at the U.S. Department of Energy. “Recognizing organizations that demonstrate excellent global stewardship by pioneering this robust approach to energy management will provide inspiration for others to follow their example.”

Industrial, commercial, and public sector companies or facilities that hold a current, third-party-verified ISO 50001 certificate are eligible to enter the Energy Management Leadership Awards program. To enter the competition, an organization must submit a copy of its ISO 50001 certificate and a structured case study, which will be evaluated by an independent panel of international experts. Three organizations will receive the CEM Award of Excellence for Energy Management. The winning organizations will be recognized at an awards ceremony during the Seventh Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7) meeting in San Francisco on June 2, 2016, which will be attended by energy ministers and leaders from businesses and other organizations from around the globe.

Beyond the Award of Excellence, each organization that submits a qualifying entry will receive an Energy Management Insight Award for helping to build global insight on the benefits of energy management systems. Top-ranked submissions from each country will also be communicated to the appropriate country governments, which may present national energy management awards of their own. All accepted entries will be published online to highlight the range of benefits achieved through the use of ISO 50001-certified energy management systems.

This awards program is the latest in a series of activities launched by the CEM Energy Management Working Group (EMWG). Through the EMWG, government officials share best practices and leverage their collective knowledge and experience to accelerate the use of energy management systems in industrial and commercial buildings. Governments participating in the EMWG include Australia, Canada, Chile, China (observer), the European Commission, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States.

More information on the awards program is available here.

Publication date: 2/2/2016

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