By improving lighting controls in a building you can often significantly reduce energy consumption and costs with little or no capital investment. However, even in times when corporate social responsibility is moving to the fore and many organisations are taking energy efficiency and good environmental practices more seriously, it's not uncommon to see lights switched on throughout the day and long into the night, even though rooms are empty.

Most organisations can use automatic meter reading to measure, collect and record energy information that can be transmitted to a PC or over the Internet to create reports and analysis that will help towards better energy management.

For the most part, an energy survey of a building will be required to identify opportunities to reduce energy consumption costs and increase energy efficiency in the building fabric, building services and equipment.

In order to know how to write an energy policy you must first identify what it is that your organisation wants to achieve from the policy document.

An energy policy is often the first step that any organisation should take when developing an energy management system.