5 Things You Need to Know about Energy Management with ISO 50001

Introducing IFMA’s podcast Connected FM! We are excited to share the latest insights and ideas in facility management from industry insiders. On our first episode, Graziella Sicilliano from the US Department of Energy interviewed Greg Lamson from Boston Scientific to talk about energy management and the ISO 50001 global standard. They also discussed what’s driving energy and carbon management at Boston Scientific and how using the ISO 50001 energy management system framework is helping streamline efforts across the company saving energy, carbon, time and money. 

Here’s a quick recap of our top 5 favorite moments from the episode:  

1. How do you get FMs and leaders to move toward carbon neutrality?

“It’s a top-down approach,” said Lamson. “Everybody’s performance metrics are tied to these goals. We have social and sustainability goals as well as environmental. We have a global facilities and utility management team. We meet every month or every other month and that’s how we stay in contact through community of practice. Just lots of knowledge sharing. It’s definitely a great resource.”  

2. How did you implement and coordinate adoption of ISO 50001? 

“Energy management is going to be our key tool to implementing carbon neutrality,” said Lamson. “We have basically three pillars of that: cut, convert and compensate.” 

Step 1: Cut the current energy used; implement more efficient equipment or a better sequence of operations 

Step 2: Decarbonize your sites; move away from natural gas and towards renewable energy 

Step 3: Invest in carbon offsets  

3. What were the challenges and benefits of implementation? 

“We had a lot of experience behind us. Our sites in Ireland and Prague were already 50001 certified so they built the energy manual. Certainly being able to use all the tools that have been put in place, really allowed us to meet our goal,” said Lamson.  

"We do know a lot of European companies that have a lot of incentives in Europe (financial)...that we don’t quite have setup in the United States,” added Sicilliano. 

As for benefits, Lamson said that prior to the 50001 certification, “Our energy management was more of an ad hoc type situation...it wasn’t strategic at that point...It wasn’t as standardized.” 

4. What are your next steps? 

“It’s an ongoing process. We are always trying to improve the program, implement more efficient equipment,  but in general just improve the program,” said Lamson. “One of my favorite sayings is ‘Continual improvement.’”

5. What is your most helpful tool? 

Want to learn more? Listen to the full episode of “Connected FM” and join us every other Tuesday for a new episode.