The link between corporate energy management and environmental strategy implementation: Efficiency, sufficiency and consistency strategy perspectives

Abstract

In managing energy, companies face numerous challenges arising as a result of the imperfections and inaccuracies of the information on the subject. This study examines the uses of energy information in corporate energy management strategies from an environmental strategy implementation perspective. Based on 18 commercial and industrial sector businesses in Sri Lanka, the study develops an analytical framework combining the use of information in three energy management strategies (i.e., efficiency, sufficiency, and consistency) in organizations at different levels of environmental strategy implementation (i.e., reactive, preventive and proactive strategies). The study has identified a wide range of energy information uses for organizational efficiency within all environmental strategies. However, the findings reveal limited, and ad hoc energy information uses for sufficiency and consistency strategies of the organizations that pursue reactive and preventive strategies. The lack of systematic energy information management systems points to the vast potential for organizations, particularly in the early stages of environmental strategy implementation, to achieve corporate energy sustainability. This study also highlights the practical implications of the key actors in energy management, such as government bodies and policymakers, practitioners in the corporate sector, and industry chambers.