Energy demand

This dependency category covers direct and indirect reliance on energy (whether derived from renewable or non-renewable energy resources).

Metric:

Productive output per unit energy input

Units

Output per unit energy input, e.g. megajoules (MJ) or kilowatt-hours (kWh)

Example target

Benchmark against best practice

Example methods / guidance / references

What are tiers?

Tier 1

Estimate using own judgement and observations

Tier 2

Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data

Tier 3

Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.

Example data sources

Internal records

Third-party data sources

Site-specific measurements or model outputs

Notes

This metric is proposed because productive output per unit of energy input is an indicator of the degree of dependency on energy as an input to production. If desired, this metric can then be separately expressed in terms of productive output per unit of renewable and non-renewable energy inputs. Also, if an organisation depends on energy from a specific type of energy input or fuel which is not directly substitutable by other energy inputs or fuels, this metric could be expressed in terms of units of specific energy inputs or fuels (e.g. t coal or L diesel), in addition to units of energy (e.g. MJ or kWh).