1282 companies from 13 countries were surveyed, ranging from small enterprises with fewer than 100 employees to those with a $5 billion turnover and over 5,000 workers. It found that 93% of businesses plan to execute energy efficiency upgrades in the next three years, with 61% having already made investments. This is a significant increase from 54% in 2022.

Energy efficiency is crucial in the climate transition as it is, as the International Energy Agency puts it, the “first fuel” that allows us to do more with less energy. The most common measure implemented today is moving data to the cloud (72%), followed by energy efficiency audits as the second most common measure (69%). Efficient heating and cooling implementations are also popular, including improving the efficiency of cooling systems (64%), maintaining heat exchangers (60%), implementing heat reuse within own facilities (56%), and implementing heat reuse to sell to local energy companies (49%).

“An energy efficiency audit is a crucial foundation step towards achieving sustainable energy management. It is gratifying to see that 69% of businesses have committed to investing in or are already conducting such audits. They are instrumental in uncovering energy-saving opportunities, reducing costs, and guiding strategic investments that not only improve the bottom line but also contribute to a more sustainable future,” said Tarak Mehta, President of Motion Business Area, ABB.

The increasing energy costs of the 2020s are a concern to many companies, as the survey shows that 24% of businesses’ annual operating costs are attributable to energy usage, consistent with 23% in 2022. A majority (58%) of businesses refer to rising energy costs as at least a moderate threat to their profitability, an increase of 5 percentage points since 2022.

The majority of the increase comes from North and Latin America, areas where the power grids are still primarily fossil-based and therefore more reliant on potentially volatile international markets. As a result, more than half (52%) of the surveyed businesses consider cost savings the main reason to implement energy efficiency measures, tightly followed by corporate sustainability commitments (48%).

Over half of the respondents (53%) say that the cost of implementation is the primary barrier to improving energy efficiency, even though energy efficiency is seen as reducing costs in the long run. Education is an important factor here, as areas where the awareness of energy efficiency technologies is high, such as China, Germany, and Sweden, rate this barrier as significantly less impactful compared to the 2022 results.

The survey also shows that businesses request more guidance from governments and third-party organizations on energy efficiency. Most companies would be persuaded to implement energy efficiency with a payback time of 5 years or less – here, financial incentives and increased awareness can do a lot to accelerate the adoption of energy efficiency, enabling significant emissions reductions.