Business energy efficiency has a staff problem, says a new survey
Here’s a finding that’ll sound familiar to anyone who’s ever put a “please switch off the lights” sign by the door. A workplace survey published on 23 October 2026 by D-ENERGI, a business energy supplier, found that 78% of C-suite executives are confident their company will reach net zero by 2050. Among entry level workers, that figure is 34%. Half of junior staff said they weren’t aware of any plan at all, against 7% of executives.
That’s a net zero finding on the face of it, but it’s really a business energy efficiency finding. The plan at the top only cuts the bill if the people running the kettle, the heating and the warehouse lights are in on it. So this post does two things: reports what the survey found, and sets out five business energy efficiency wins that work whether or not anyone’s read the strategy.
What did the D-ENERGI survey actually find?
It found that staff care, but don’t feel part of the plan. D-ENERGI’s Energy Efficiency in the Workplace Report, reported by The Energyst, surveyed workers across the country. The main numbers, all D-ENERGI’s own:
| Finding (D-ENERGI survey, October 2026) | Figure |
|---|---|
| C-suite confident the firm reaches net zero by 2050 | 78% |
| Entry level workers confident of the same | 34% |
| Junior workers unaware of any company plan | Around half |
| Executives unaware of any company plan | 7% |
| Workers who say they care about the energy they use at work | 70% |
| Workers actively reducing waste and improving recycling | 40% |
| Workers who try to minimise the energy they use | Around a third |
| Workers who think colleagues do enough on their footprint | About a quarter |
Mike Williamson, a business analyst at D-ENERGI, put it this way: the opportunity now is “collective action and making sure sustainability plans are more visible, understandable and relevant to businesses in their entirety, not just at the top.” The report’s own conclusion is that communication, not strategy, is the missing cog.
Why does business energy efficiency depend on the staff?
Because a business has no price cap to hide behind. Households get Ofgem’s cap. A firm gets the contract it signed, or the deemed rate it didn’t, and every unit burned after hours goes straight on the bill at whatever rate that is. We explain the charges in our guide to hidden business energy charges.
That makes business energy efficiency a people job as much as a kit job. A new boiler or LED fit out cuts the bill once. Staff habits cut it every day, or quietly add to it every day. The survey suggests 70% of workers are willing. The gap is that nobody has told them what, specifically, to do.
Five business energy efficiency wins that don’t need a strategy
None of these need a consultant. They need a Monday morning and someone willing to own them.
The five wins
- Tell people the plan, in a paragraph. If half your staff don’t know there is one, that’s the first fix. One short note on what the firm’s doing and why, pinned where people actually look.
- Name the three things that matter in your building. For an office it’s probably heating, lighting and standby kit. For a shop it might be fridges, doors and signage. Pick your three and say so.
- Put the thermostat and the timers out of reach of good intentions. Set the heating schedule to your real opening hours and lock it, so nobody “helpfully” cranks it at 8am on a Sunday.
- Give someone the meter. A weekly reading, or a glance at the smart meter portal, turns energy from an invisible cost into a number a team can move. Our SME case study shows how one firm did exactly that.
- Make the last person out the switch off person. Lights, screens, printers, the coffee machine. Write the list on the back of the door. It’s low tech and it works.
Our guide for retailers cutting energy at peak hours goes deeper on timing, which matters if your contract has peak and off peak rates.
What does this mean for a small firm’s bill?
Honestly, it depends on your building and your contract, and we’re not going to invent a percentage. Energy saving bodies have long said a good chunk of workplace waste is behavioural, but how much that’s worth to you comes down to your usage, your rates and how far your current habits are from sensible. Measure first. Then you’ll know.
What we can say is where the Do Nothing Default bites hardest for businesses: the contract itself. If yours has rolled onto out of contract rates, no amount of switching off lights will catch up with that. Business energy efficiency on the shop floor and a competitive contract in the office are two halves of the same job, and the second one takes about a minute to start.
Frequently asked questions about business energy efficiency
- Who ran the survey and is it independent?
- D-ENERGI, a business energy supplier, published it as its Energy Efficiency in the Workplace Report on 23 October 2026. It’s a supplier’s own research, so treat the figures as a useful snapshot rather than an official statistic.
- Is business energy efficiency worth it on a fixed contract?
- Yes. A fixed contract fixes the unit rate, not the number of units. Use less and you pay less, whatever the rate.
- Do small businesses have to report on net zero?
- Most small firms have no legal reporting duty today, though larger customers and lenders increasingly ask. Check the current rules for your size of business on GOV.UK before assuming either way.
- Where’s the biggest energy waste in a typical office?
- Usually heating and cooling running outside hours, then lighting and equipment left on standby. Your own meter readings will tell you which applies to your building.
Sources: The Energyst, “Bosses believe, employees aren’t convinced, the net zero divide“, 23 October 2026, reporting D-ENERGI’s Energy Efficiency in the Workplace Report. All survey figures are D-ENERGI’s own. Checked October 2026.
