4 Takeaways from EnergyCAP’s Discussion with Smart Building Insight

Joseph Aamidor of Aamidor Consulting recently sat down with EnergyCAP’s founder and industry expert, Steve Heinz, for a Q&A. We’re recapping and expanding on some of Steve’s best advice from their conversation. Be sure to check out the entire discussion for more insights, and subscribe to the Smart Building Insight newsletter to keep pace with industry trends, monthly updates on key investment news, and market transactions.

1. Any advice for young Energy Managers?

Energy managers today do so much more than simple resource management: negotiating energy supply contracts, selecting the optimum utility supplier rates, folding in renewable projects, while upgrading building systems, keeping current with the latest smart building technologies, and complying with sustainability reporting plus a huge range of sustainability initiatives. Despite this, energy management still lacks a place in executive leadership. Up and coming energy managers should advocate for a seat at the C-suite table and propose a path to titles like “Chief Energy Resource and Sustainability Officer”.

2. How can energy management gain visibility? 

Often, the value proposition of energy management is reduced to a simple financial ranking: does the project save money or show a positive net present value? But the value of energy management is so much more than this, and leaders should look for ways to challenge their organizations and engage with others across their industry. ENERGY STAR has a number of programs specifically designed to increase the visibility of energy management and connect companies to resources: from industry groups, to certification, to activities for employees. Additionally, The CEM designation is still extremely important for energy management professionals, but we should consider evolving it into a Certified Energy Resource and Sustainability Leader certification to reflect the comprehensive leadership role that these experts perform.

3. What’s new at EnergyCAP?

EnergyCAP began as a stand-alone application for energy managers. With the addition of tools for accounts payable and bill processing it became a cross-departmental platform. Every year has brought changes and 2023 has been the most exciting yet. EnergyCAP has launched several new products designed to address the issues customers are facing now. The new products are founded on the 40+ years of energy and utility expertise and designed to bring teams together in a single platform: from comprehensive carbon tracking and reporting, real-time data capture and analytics, and even a version designed specifically for utility companies that provides off-the-shelf commercial software to empower customer engagement and satisfy emerging state and PUC data-access regulations. EnergyCAP isn’t just a product anymore, it’s a comprehensive set of solutions designed to work together to address every single aspect of energy and sustainability data management, analysis, goal achievement, and compliance.

4. Where is the ESG software industry headed?

Both EnergyCAP software and the energy software industry have evolved to become an essential single source of truth for cross-functional data and tools, an “Energy and Sustainability ERP.”  In coming years, Steve believes that AI will enhance problem and fault detection, and lead to deeper efficiency gains.  Once again, the energy manager will be challenged with adopting new technologies!

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