Despite there only being three months until the deadline for compliance with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme, only 152 organisations have informed the Environment Agency that they are compliant, according to Savills Energy.
ESOS requires heavy energy users to undertake an energy assessment, the first of which must be carried out by 5 December 2015.
The energy and environment consultancy has warned those that have failed to prepare for ESOS that a mandatory audit can take up to three months to complete, cutting it extremely fine for the 5 December deadline. Failing to comply with ESOS will put organisations at risk of fines and penalties, a serious concern for the roughly 15,000 organisations who are still non-compliant.
Stuart Campbell, director at Savills Energy added: “Businesses which fail to comply with ESOS could be fined up to £50,000, plus an additional £500 a day, every day the audit remains outstanding. We believe that many businesses in the UK required to comply could recover the financial outlay of recommended actions within two years.”
Campbell adds that he believes proactive businesses will not see ESOS as a “bureaucratic hurdle” but will recognise the potential of energy efficiency improvements to unlock business-wide cost savings.