A Day in the Life of an Energy Consultant

I’m excited to finally sit down with Alan Asbury, who is one of the UK’s leading energy savings experts.

Alan has been interested in environmental issues since he was a teenager, and attained his master’s degree in ‘Environmental Management, Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Energy, Resources’ from the University of Nottingham in 1999.

After working for a number of private and public organisations, Alan set up his own consultancy company called CLS Energy in 2014. His company specialises in delivering energy savings for commercial and public buildings such as, factories, airports, schools, laboratories, shops and offices.

Additionally, CLS Energy provides fleet management, helping car, HGV and airline fleets to boost their fuel efficiencies and slash their costs.

Let’s hear from Alan now…

How would you describe the role of an energy consultant?

“Working in this field is a dream job as every day is different. I get to work with some truly inspiring customers, finding solutions and saving them energy and significant revenue costs. I also get to work alongside a team of specialist electrical and mechanical engineers, which is always great learning.”

What does your typical workday look like?

“Maybe 40% of my time is spent crunching spreadsheet data and writing up reports. For the most part, I will be travelling to a factory or site to meet customers and to discuss their energy issues. I also spend a lot of time inspecting sites, operations and plant rooms. This allows me to gather information and to log data for energy saving measures – which I can later use for calculations, research and recommendations to the customer.”

What clients have you worked for?

“My clients include Hallmark, Uniserve, London Oxford Airport, Epwin Group as well as three universities, Hastings and Rother councils, Titan and Qatar airlines, Regatta and Missguided.”

Do you work exclusively in the UK, or do you help clients in other countries?

“About 80% of my work is in the UK, but I also work in Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And this aspect is growing – despite the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.”

What’s the project you’re most proud of?

“I love saving money for customers, and typically save hundreds of thousands of pounds for my freight clients. For example, I delivered significant energy and fleet savings for NIVEA UK in 2015. And they were so pleased with our work that we were invited to audit all of their Nordic operations too.”

What do you think the big trends in energy saving will be in the next 10 years?

“The move to electric and hydrogen vehicles will be a game changer. And with solar PV prices at an all-time low, the incentives to generate your own energy are very attractive too. Renewable energy and energy storage is showing significant growth as coal power falls away and the future for clean energy production is highly promising.”

For readers interested in following in your footsteps, what courses and training would you recommend?

“The Energy Institute in London offers excellent training courses from basic through intermediate to advanced and European – which are the highest levels of training in the industry across the world, and can lead to Chartership and ultimately Fellowship.”

For more information on energy consultancy and management, I recommend you check out the CLS Energy website. Additionally, you can follow Alan on LinkedIn.