ISO 50001 for retail and trade

In retail and trade, energy is a cost that appears at every location: lighting, refrigeration, heating, ventilation, loading bays, delivery vehicles. Large buyers, shopping centre operators and landlords look at this cost. Many ask their suppliers and tenants how it is managed.

The question usually arrives as one line in a supplier questionnaire or a tender: is there an energy management system, and can you prove it? A wholesaler supplying a retail chain, a distributor with a central warehouse and a retailer with several stores can all receive it. An ISO 50001 certificate gives the purchasing department something to check instead of a promise.

The standard also helps inside the company. Once you know which store or which cold room drives the bill, you can decide where to invest first.

• ISO 50001 at a glance

ISO 50001 starts with an honest look at consumption. The table shows the areas where trading companies usually find their largest energy uses and what the standard asks you to do about each.

The standard follows the usual high level structure, with planning in clause 6, operation in clause 8, performance evaluation in clause 9 and improvement in clause 10. In a shop or warehouse the six key requirements look like this.

1. 01

   Establish an energy baseline

   A fashion retailer with six stores collects twelve months of electricity and heating invoices per store. That year becomes the reference for every later comparison.

2. 02

   Identify significant energy uses

   In a grocery store, refrigeration and lighting can account for the largest share. In a warehouse it may be forklift charging and hall heating. Name the few uses that matter instead of listing every socket.

3. 03

   Define energy performance indicators

   Typical choices are kWh per square metre of sales area per year, or kWh per parcel dispatched for an online shop.

4. 04

   Set objectives and action plans

   Replace fluorescent tubes with LED in two stores by autumn. Name the owner, for example the facility manager, and check the result against meter readings.

5. 05

   Procure energy-efficient products and services

   When a cooling cabinet or a delivery van is due for replacement, energy consumption counts next to price. Write that criterion into your purchasing rules.

6. 06

   Monitor and improve energy performance

   Read the meters every month, compare with the baseline and discuss deviations in a management meeting. Adjust the action plan where the numbers do not move.

Energy management has its own vocabulary. These four terms come up in every assessment.

Energy baseline

The consumption of a defined period that you compare against later. Example: total kWh of the Basel store in the last twelve months.

Significant energy use

An application that takes a large share of your energy or offers clear room for savings. Example: the cold room of a food wholesaler.

Energy performance indicator (EnPI)

A ratio that makes consumption comparable when business volume changes. Example: kWh per 1,000 CHF of turnover, or per square metre of sales area.

Energy objective

A measurable goal with a deadline. Example: lower the electricity use of all stores per square metre by a set amount within the year.

You answer 32 yes/no questions online. Thirteen of them are mandatory requirements of the standard and must all be answered yes. Among the other 19 you need at least 13 yes answers. There is no on-site audit and you do not need an account to buy.

The certificate is issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE, and SICE reviews every assessment before issue. Each certificate carries a number and a QR code on the PDF. A buyer scans the code and lands on the public verification page, which confirms that the certificate is genuine.

The price is CHF 749 (€749) in the first year, then CHF 499 (€499) per year including the yearly online re-audit. The certificate is valid for 3 years. Customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein pay 8.1% VAT, already included. If you add a second standard you get 20% off, from three standards 30%, also on the yearly fee.

The yearly fee renews automatically. You can cancel at any time in your customer account, effective at the end of the current year. The certificate then ends with the paid year.

• Start the free self-assessment
• See pricing
• How it works

The classic route means an on-site audit by a certification body. Cost and duration depend on the number of sites and employees, and they only become clear once you have requested offers. For a retailer with many stores, the audit planning alone can take considerable effort.

If a tender names a specific certification route, read the tender documents before you decide. If the buyer mainly wants verifiable proof of a working energy management system, the online route covers that without auditors visiting your stores.

• Compare the certification routes
• Certification without an on-site audit
• What certification costs