The Malta Business Bureau and the Malta Chamber of Commerce have outlined their two-year commitment, through the Investing in Energy Project in partnership with The Energy and Water Agency, to foster an energy performance culture among SMEs in Malta.
Chamber president Frank Farrugia told an energy conference: “By mobilising and empowering businesses to act on energy performance, climate change can be countered, the economy can be stimulated, and social opportunities can be unlocked.”
MEP Miriam Dalli said: “A clean energy economy will enable ordinary people to earn more money and provide others the chance to save money through conservation and energy efficiency. We can achieve positive significant impacts by moving towards energy efficiency and transforming our transportation system.”
MBB Investing in Energy project manager Geoffrey Saliba said the project will offer businesses energy audits, technical training workshops for staff, a B2B programme through which best practice businesses will coach relevant businesses interested in replicating their best practice, and economic studies aimed at guiding businesses and energy auditors.
The project will run until November 2018.
Highlighting the opportunities energy efficiency presents, economist Bernard Mallia gave insights into the first such study by the Investing in Energy Project. This showed that a sample of 20 of Malta’s largest companies, which had undergone extensive energy audits as part of the Energy Efficiency Directive compliance, have invested just over €6.4 million in energy efficiency measures over the coming two years. The investment has resulted in savings of over €1 million per annum.
Highlighting the project’s objective of bringing about real, tangible and measured change, conference host Joe Tanti, CEO of the MBB, stated that the project aims to encourage around 30 per cent of targeted medium-sized companies in manufacturing, wholesale, retail and import sectors, to take up energy audits. Of these, the project aims that around 50 per cent will take up energy performance recommendations.