Gem of the day

Deloitte has a new report out with a bold title designed to capture the attention of industry rags: "Every Company is an Energy Company". There's many, oh so many gems in here, but three deserve special attention.

#1 is this diagram. The simplistic idea that it's all about 'product and profit', translating into 'buy clean', is truly spectacular. Overall it's a classic reduction that has little to no meaning.

#2 is that behavior change, and how we can get people--not just 'corporations--to use less energy gets only a one-sentence nod in the entire thing. Let alone how we get people in a more holistic sense to change their relationship with energy (by developing a relationship with it in the first place).

#3 is their explanation for why renewables have yet to become front of mind:

"Perhaps one reason that corporations have not been quick enough to understand and implement energy management is that renewable technologies like wind and solar seemed for a while likely to ascend more quickly than they have. But the accumulated experience with renewables over the past few years has dimmed expectations."

Right, and traditional energy companies--read: oil and gas and coal--have had no role to play in trying to convince people that scaling up alternatives is an ambiguous and doubt-ridden 'challenge for the future'.