Beverage Roundtable Releases Energy Management Guidelines

The Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) has released an Energy Management Guidance overview, which is available at its website.

The initiative has six goals, according to the organization:

• Boundary: Determining what operations will be included in tracking energy production and consumption.
• Baseline: Creating a benchmark performance and measuring improvement.
• Metering: Continuous collecting, measuring, and monitoring of energy data.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s): Measuring what is important.
• Benchmarking: Comparing the facility’s results with other plants or best-in-class performers.
• Goals & Targeting: Pursuing deliberate reductions, increasing employee engagement, quantifying financial savings and tracking progress.

The 2014 BIER Benchmarking Study revealed that 58 percent of facilities reporting five years of data had decreased their Energy Use Ratio between 2009 and 2013. The new guidance is aimed at accelerating that reduction by promoting consistent and systematic management of energy across global operations.

Early last year, BIER released what Sustainable Brands called the industry’s first common framework for reporting greenhouse gas emissions. The goal of the Beverage Industry Sector Guidance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting is alignment and compliance with The Greenhouse Gas Protocol from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and World Resources Institute.