Energy efficiency

As an entrepreneur, you should maximise the energy efficiency of your business operations. You should constantly monitor your energy consumption and how the energy is consumed. An energy-efficient company produces goods and services with a minimum amount of energy.

Energy-efficiency should be a key consideration in procurements when you select the services machinery, equipment and other technology that will best suit your company and consider their location.

Make sure that your company’s facilities are as energy-efficient as possible. Pay attention to the energy consumption of heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation and other electrical equipment.

Energy efficiency should also be a consideration in product design. Use energy-efficient raw materials and production methods. Design your product so that it can be used, repaired and recycled with a minimum amount of energy.

Make the systematic promotion, measurement and monitoring of energy efficiency part of your daily operations. In the optimum situation, it will lead to cost savings and continuous improvements in energy efficiency.

The easiest way to measure energy efficiency in your company is to compare your current energy consumption with the past situation. You can measure overall energy consumption or the energy consumption of individual processes in relation to output.

There is a broad range of different indicators that you can use for energy-efficiency measurements. They include the consumption of electricity, heat, steam, fuels and other types of energy, as well as equipment-specific outputs and operating times.

An industrial company can also consider such factors as temperatures, humidity and pressure. Steam, gas, liquid and mass flows can also be included in the calculations. You can use imputed indicators combining several measurement results.

You can incorporate the measurement of energy efficiency into your company’s property or process automation system. If necessary, when making measurements, focus on the processes and equipment with the highest consumption of electricity and thermal energy, such as power rooms, compressor rooms, heating systems, ventilation equipment and cooling equipment.

Monitor your energy efficiency on a regular basis and use the measurement results to enhance energy efficiency in your company.

A supported energy audit includes the review of your company’s energy use and energy-saving potential by authorised Motiva auditors. They also examine whether your company is able to use renewable energy. 

The auditors will produce a report containing proposals for energy-saving measures and detailing how they would impact the carbon dioxide emissions generated by your company. You will also be provided with calculations detailing how the energy-saving measures would affect your profitability.

Under the Energy Efficiency Act, large companies must carry out a mandatory energy audit every four years. Your company is a large company if it has more than 250 employees or a turnover of more than EUR 50 million and the balance sheet total of more than EUR 43 million. The figures for the principal place of business of your company and all of its branches in Finland and abroad must be included in the total. For a group, the figures must include the parent company as well as all the subsidiaries owned by the parent company. Because the energy audit is a statutory obligation, large companies cannot get financial support for it.

Micro companies and small and medium-sized enterprises do not need to carry out energy audits but these are often highly useful. You can apply for an energy support review from Business Finland.

Motiva is a state-owned company whose special task is to accelerate sustainable development in society. Read more on Motiva's energy audits.Opens in a new window. 

The objective of energy efficiency agreements is to guide companies and communities to continuously improve their energy efficiency. When you join the agreement, you set a quantitative energy efficiency target for your company and take measures to achieve the target on a voluntary basis.

You report annually to the monitoring system on energy-efficiency measures and other activities aimed at improving energy efficiency.

By being part of an agreement, your company has the opportunity to receive support from Business Finland for ordinary energy-efficiency investments.

Read up on the energy efficiency agreement.Opens in a new window.

In the ESCO service, a company providing energy-efficiency services carries out improvements and other measures in your business aimed at saving energy and using it more efficiently. The costs arising from the service are paid, in full or as agreed, with the savings generated through lower energy consumption in your company. The ESCO service guarantees that by using it, your company will achieve real energy savings.

When your company wants to use the ESCO service, you should conclude a detailed agreement on the scope of the measures with the expert company. All details (such as how the achievement of the savings and other targets is verified) should be stated in the agreement. See the Motiva website for energy efficiency and ESCO services for instructions on how to conclude an agreement (In Finnish).Opens in a new window.

You can also agree with the expert company on a package deal. In that case, the expert company will arrange the funding for the project and supply and maintain the necessary equipment for the whole agreement period.

You can apply for funding for the ESCO service from Business Finland. Please note that no aid will be granted for projects launched before the aid decision.