Investment, interest in energy efficiency at all-time high

That’s one of the key findings of The 2016 Johnson Controls Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI) survey of more than 1,200 facility and energy management executives.



Fifty percent of survey respondents say that their organizations are paying more attention to energy efficiency today than they did a year ago, and 72% anticipate increased investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy over the next 12 months. By comparison, 37% of global respondents in 2013 reported paying more attention to energy efficiency and 42% planned to increase investments.



Cost reduction remains the primary driver of energy efficiency. But organizations are also increasingly considering energy security, customer and employee attraction, greenhouse gas reduction, enhanced reputation, government policy and investor expectations when making investment decisions. Survey results show that 64% of U.S. organizations now have an internal or publicly stated carbon reduction goal, up from 41% in 2013.



Additional key findings that emerged from the survey include:



• The most frequent energy efficiency measures implemented last year were HVAC improvements, energy education programs, building controls upgrades, building systems integration, on-site renewable energy and water efficiency improvements.



• Forty-two percent of organizations are willing to pay a premium to lease space in a certified green building versus 15% in 2013. And 37% of global organizations build out their leased space to high-performance standards versus 18% in 2013.



• Eighty percent of organizations plan to achieve nearly zero, net zero or positive energy status for at least one of their facilities versus 49% in 2013.



• Resilience is becoming an important driver, with 82% of organizations reporting the ability to maintain critical operations during severe weather events or extended power outages is very or extremely important when considering future infrastructure investments.



• Sixty-four percent of organizations in urban areas have invested in building management systems, and more than 50% have invested in the integration of building management systems with lighting, security, life safety or other building systems. In addition, 39% have invested in on-site renewable energy and 24% in non-renewable distributed generation. These organizations are also more likely to invest in energy storage and demand response technology.



Similar to past results, respondents report lack of funding, insufficient payback, savings uncertainty and a lack of technical expertise as the most significant barriers to investment.