How Bristol Water reaped the benefits of using ISO 50001 as a route to ESOS compliance.

Last updated: 9th May 2018

Bristol Water needed to comply with ESOS but wanted to go above and beyond a tick box exercise. With an annual energy bill approaching £9m, they chose to achieve compliance through certification to ISO 15001 and use the journey to certification to embed an energy efficient culture and practices within the business.

JRP Solutions worked with Bristol Water to review their overall strategy and structure, considered the best practical way to comply and to get the most out of ISO 50001 and then agreed the optimum approach, prioritising actions that saved energy and costs.

Energy training was an essential component of engaging staff in the journey towards certification. Before this could begin, it was important to define clear roles and areas of responsibility for staff, which would determine what level of training they required. JRP worked with Bristol Water to develop a structure, hierarchy and job profiles including for senior management team, board sponsors, energy managers, lead energy champions and energy champions.

A total of 35 people, including directors, engineers, administrators, plant operators and project managers, were then involved in 3 levels of training, starting with the senior management team and board sponsors. A high level, half day, bespoke Energy Awareness at Work course, including ISO 50001 appreciation, was delivered to this group. This course not only gave these senior personnel a good grounding and understanding of what the organisation should be doing, but also assured their buy-in for the whole project and influenced the engagement level for all staff. 

Other Bristol Water personnel given roles within the energy management structure; Energy Managers, Lead Energy Champions and Energy Champions, received more in-depth, bespoke, Energy Champion training.

“The training programmes delivered engaged our staff in energy saving in a really meaningful way.” Martin Berry, Water Resources Planning Manager, Bristol Water.

As part of this programme for the Level 3 training, a comprehensive energy savings opportunity register was developed. The 3 courses resulted in a list of 92 energy savings suggestions. Half of each of the training sessions was spent on a practical analysis of what had been learned and how to use this knowledge to identify and implement improvements. The objective of this approach was to arm delegates with the knowledge they need to achieve real savings and to achieve and maintain ISO 50001 certification.

Bespoke energy training booklets were developed for all Bristol Water trainees relating to course materials with particular emphasis given to pumps, which represent 75% of the company energy consumption. 

In order to enable Bristol Water to assess project savings as well as design considerations for new equipment against old going forward, JRP produced a calculations workbook which now allows them to quantify the savings potential across a number of technologies such as lighting, small power, compressed air, blowers, pumps, insulation, plus heating, ventilation and air conditioning. This information is invaluable in budgeting for capital expenditure.

In addition, JRP developed check lists for each technology to embed good practice within the organisation. The checklists include a list of everything that needs to be checked, 20-25 potential opportunities to be checked for each technology, the reason why it’s deemed to be an opportunity and then details of what action needs to be taken.

Bristol Water aimed to reduce energy consumption by 2.5% from behavioural change alone and believe this is achievable based on evidence of results achieved with other JRP customers. The potential savings based on Bristol Water’s energy expenditure is therefore £225k/year.

Feedback from delegates was very positive with 100% saying they would be likely to recommend the training to others. Typical comments included:

“Great insight into energy efficiency”,

 “Very well presented, clear, concise and set at a pace suitable to all”, 

“The course info was good, I learnt a lot”.



N.B. The information contained in this entry is provided by the above supplier, and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher


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