As per the rule 8(3) the Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014 the Board report shall contain Disclosure of Energy conservation activities that happens in the financial year. Disclosure should include steps taken to conserve energy, utilization of alternative sources and capital investment on energy conservation projects.

In last week I went through many annual reports to understand kind of projects or initiatives leading conglomerates are taking in the Energy Efficiency landscape. Reviewed annual reports from over 10 large and around 15 midsize companies from diverse industrial sectors, to understand and analyze their thought process on Energy Efficiency or Energy Productivity in general.

Surprisingly most of the Energy Efficiency initiatives listed in the annual reports were to common projects like Installation of VFDs, replacement of CFL with LED lights, Power factor correction, and low-cost retrofit projects. They certainly meet the objective of complying with the regulatory requirements and reporting the bare minimum information as is required by the system.

With forward looking organizations taking scientific targets on Energy Productivity improvement, investors and stakeholders want to know more about how your company is poised to respond to challenges of tomorrow.

Some of things that companies can cover are:-

• Efforts being taken to utilize data assets?
• How is company planning to innovate on operational practices?
• What is the plan to use emerging technologies such as #IIoT, #BigData and #Cloud?

I genuinely think that annual report is a very effective way of communicating with stakeholders, reaffirming the company’s approach towards increased Energy Productivity and overall sustainability, otherwise it’s pretty much a lost opportunity.

Regards,

Sumit Nawathe