October 14, 2024 Commercial Solar Power, ESG

Why solar power could be essential to your ESG and growth strategies

Gone are the days when businesses thought that Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives came at the expense of profit or growth. Nowadays, ESG is more or less essential to the health of your business.

If you’re a consumer-facing business, 77% of your customers want companies to tackle ESG issues. If you’re purely B2B, your customers will immediately (or soon) be actively reducing their Scope 3 emissions (the emissions from their supply chain). As a supplier, your emissions could cost you business.

Aside from attracting and retaining customers, ESG (and solar power in particular) is unique among investments for offering a guaranteed ROI, with a short payback period and an asset that could relatively soon be delivering completely free electricity to your business.

Here’s how Solar PV can power your business, while also powering your business growth and ESG initiatives.

Solar power attracts investors and customers

It is a daunting enough task for a business to track and reduce its own carbon emissions, but on top of that, there are Scope 3 emissions — the emissions that the business influences but doesn’t directly control. Reporting those is largely voluntary, but businesses are aware that knowing, reporting, and reducing them could soon be expected or required by law or by consumers.

Not only are Scope 3emissions hard to track, but they also account for anything between 65% and 95% of total emissions.

Your solar power array could be the reassurance that a partner needs that you’re the right fit. It’s a clear step towards the reduction of emissions, plus your system will report your energy generation, which aids tracking and reporting, and helps clarify a hard-to-track figure.

Many investors and consumers also care deeply about environmental credentials, and are sensitive to the risk of greenwashing. solar power is the ultimate ‘show, don’t tell’ demonstration of your green commitment. Panels are highly visible, and they instantly communicate that you have invested in green energy, and that you are in it for the long run. Reports of the energy that you generate are also useful and objective measurements that very effectively back up any claim about ESG progress.

Solar Power offers a guaranteed ROI

If you were worried that ESG would be costly, Solar Power is proof that needn’t be the case.

Not many investments can offer a guaranteed ROI, but solar power can. The sun will shine (yes, even in Britain) and if you have panels, you will generate electricity from them. Here is a guide to solar ROI and your payback period, to help you calculate the returns your business can expect.

Once you’ve reached that payback period, the electricity is free, as well as carbon-free.

You can also realise the return on your investment quicker when you make the most of your commercial solar power system. Battery storage and techniques like time shifting (running the most energy-intensive activities when generating the most power) make smarter use of your energy and make your solar power usage more efficient.

Also, it’s important to remember that the government has made full expensing permanent. You can write off 100% of the cost of your solar panels against pre-tax profit.

Solar panels complement other renewables

As well as powering machinery, office lights, computers etc., solar power protects the green credentials of other renewable initiatives.

For example, electric vehicles are only as green as the electricity that charges them. If you are offering EV charging points at your business, then your solar panels can guarantee that 100% clean electricity is charging those cars while they’re using your chargers.

If you have some smaller and well-insulated spaces and you choose heat pumps to heat those areas, those heat pumps need electricity to function. Again, the green power that you generate keeps those systems carbon-neutral.