Three Sustainability Initiatives Industrial Organizations Will Prioritize In 2022

In tandem with COVID-19-driven risk management tactics, organizations have increasingly been seeking to learn about and improve their ESG metrics. According to data from Google Trends, searches for environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) topics have seen an astounding 577% boost since the beginning of 2017 and have doubled over the last two years. To identify the most sought after environmental strategic priorities for industrial organizations in 2022, we asked 256 executives in our recently published operational excellence global corporate survey about the significance of 10 ESG and sustainability initiatives for their firms over the next 12 months (see Figure below).In this blog, we highlight the top three initiatives that industrial organizations chose:

• Electrification of industrial processes and equipment. A staggering 94% of the executives interviewed consider electrification as a ‘very significant’ or ‘significant’ initiative for their 2022 strategy. While shifting from fossil fuels to electrification is not yet feasible or economically viable for many plants and processes, we expect hybrid approaches for low to medium temperature applications (up to 400 °C) to take off in 2022. Despite their higher CAPEX, hybrid equipment can help facilitate lower fuel costs by avoiding electricity price spikes as well as capture additional revenue sources with “grid balancing” practices.

• Replacing aging, inefficient industrial equipment. The second most significant initiative for nearly 90% of the interviewees, is to replace aging or inefficient equipment. We are witnessing more and more executives at asset-heavy and process-intensive industrial organizations turning to asset investment planning (AIP) software to address the spate of capital decisions they must take, which can significantly impact their firm’s margins but also carbon footprint. AIP software suppliers, such as Arcadis Gen, Copperleaf and DIREXYON, have proven with clients in the utilities sector that quality capital management and investment planning for industrial equipment can be a powerful tactic to reduce emissions and energy consumption.

• Leak detection for emissions reduction. The third initiative, considered by 89% of the executives as ‘very significant’ or ‘significant’, is using technology to detect leaks to reduce emissions. Asset performance management (APM) and integrity management solutions will be the protagonists in this effort – pipeline monitoring solutions such as Pipeline Integrity from AVEVA, IMS from Cenosco and Pipeline Enterprise from Metegrity streamline inspections and automate asset health monitoring efforts to save time and costs, help meet regulatory compliance, and achieve Scope 1 emission KPIs by preventing leaks and seeps.
  
  For more information on the budgets, priorities and technology preferences of industrial corporate firms, read our recently published global corporate survey 2021 for operational excellence.