Total Utilities was founded in 1999 with the simple vision of helping businesses get the best deals on their utilities. David Spratt, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Total Utilities, recalled how the company realised it could use its data on customers’ energy and waste activities to derive insights that
would enable those same customers to become more sustainable.
“Over the last five years, we have been far more aware of the fact that the data we’ve collected – in terms of cost, consumption patterns of energy and waste, and even cloud computing – has been very important
in understanding how people measure their sustainability practices,” he says.
Total Utilities now helps inform customer decisions around sustainability, providing deep, rich data through tools like Microsoft’s Power BI dashboards. Decarbonisation studies are also a key offering, with the company helping businesses explore renewable energy options and optimise their waste handling processes.
“Our mission is to use data-led insights,” says Spratt, who explains that the key to measuring and monitoring organisational sustainability is the intelligent use of data. Total Utilities helps businesses activate decision-making processes based on their data, allowing them to measure their performance against sustainability goals through energy insights and by drilling deeper into datasets.
“That’s why we are so excited about the Microsoft platform for sustainability and what it appears to offer,” he says. “It has the ability to get lots of different sets of plugins, suck the data into a single platform, and then use Power BI to deliver really informative insights into the customer’s sustainability journey.”
A successful sustainability strategy relies not just on strong targets, but also on maintaining the momentum to reach those targets. Working towards goals over long periods of time is a challenge – but
seeing ongoing progress through the data generates enthusiasm.
“The data isn’t just about measuring stuff,” explains Spratt. “It’s actually about creating energy.”