Thirty sites from multinational companies 3M, Cummins, Nissan, and Schneider Electric collectively saved $18.9 million in energy and cut the cost of implementing and certifying to ISO 50001 and Superior Energy Performance (SEP). The deep and continuing savings typically achieved under ISO 50001 increase as a company centralizes certain functions to support multiple sites. The strategies and frameworks that these four companies used to successfully implement ISO 50001 using this enterprise-wide approach are summarized in new case studies now available on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SEP website.

“Companies can use this enterprise-wide framework to cast a much bigger net and haul in more energy savings with ISO 50001—cutting time and costs,” said Paul Scheihing, a technology manager in the DOE Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO).

The multi-site approaches described in the new case studies improved energy performance by an average of five percent annually, which is well above the rate of improvement for U.S. manufacturing from EIA data. These ISO 50001-based performance improvements yield ongoing average energy savings of about $600,000 per year per site—with low- or no-cost actions typically being responsible for nearly three-quarters of those savings.

Based on prior success with ISO 50001/SEP certification, 3M, Cummins, Nissan, and Schneider Electric sought to expand energy savings with a more streamlined and cost-effective approach to ISO 50001 implementation. They worked with DOE, which administers SEP, to develop a flexible framework that leverages corporate strengths while maintaining high standards. The resulting enterprise-wide approach ultimately cut average per-site implementation costs for training by $12,000, for internal and external consultants by $3,000, and for third-party certification by $4,000.

The DOE-administered Superior Energy Performance^® program provides guidance, tools, and protocols for facilities that want third-party verification and certification of the energy performance improvement from ISO 50001. Members of the U.S. Council for Energy Efficient Manufacturing, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) developed SEP as a transparent system for certifying sustained improvements in energy performance and management practices.