An exploratory framework for energy conservation in existing warehouses

There has been a considerable amount of research in recent years regarding energy conservation in supply chains. However, warehouses, which are important nodes in most supply chains, have been largely overlooked, particularly with regard to the large existing stock of current warehouses. This paper adopts the energy audit approach that is used in other building types and develops this for use in existing warehouses. This is then applied to a single case study with multiple embedded units of analysis, namely four company-operated ambient warehouses. The results indicate that energy conservation opportunities (ECOs) vary considerably in terms of the reliability of the estimated energy saving, the likely persistency of that saving and the capital investment required. The developed framework can be used in this context to identify significant ECOs and to prioritise these for management.