Abstract
Energy audits can provide businesses with valuable information and advice about their current energy use and costs and where changes can be made to improve both the environmental performance of the business and their triple bottom line. There is literature on the use of energy audits outside Australia, but little provision of empirical data that would help a business decide whether engagement is economically viable. This paper reports on 49 SME energy audits in Australia, and the results verify that economic returns can vary significantly and alone are not a reason for most SMEs to act. Thus, more will need to be done to engage them as their collective impact on the environment should be a catalyst for action and support from stakeholders.
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Notes
The terms PFE and Vas are direct use from the article referred to and no further explanation was supplied.
It should be noted that at time of writing, the Australian dollar was almost at parity to the US dollar.
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Acknowledgments
This research was from an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, in partnership with the City of Joondalup and West Coast Institute of Training. The funding bodies had no role in the decision to submit the article for publication.
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Redmond, J., Walker, B. The value of energy audits for SMEs: an Australian example. Energy Efficiency 9, 1053–1063 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-015-9409-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-015-9409-4