A study into strategies of high energy consuming companies

This month, our Energy Transition team welcomes research student Teun Aarts. Combining his sustainability and energy science studies, Teun will deep-dive in the strategies of high energy consuming companies. How do chemical plants, transport- or heavy industry companies cope with today’s soaring energy prices? Let’s have a chat with Teun.

Teun, can you introduce yourself?

“Sure! I’m studying my Master’s degree in Energy Science at Utrecht University. Before that, I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Global Sustainability Science, also in Utrecht. In my spare time I like to play sports: cycling, football and snowboarding. I also like watching a good movie and enrich my astronomy knowledge. But mostly, I prefer to be outside. In the mountains or in the Dutch nature!”

Why study both sustainability and energy science?

“I think my studies combine the best of both worlds: I learned a lot from my bachelor, which looks at sustainability at the broadest sense and from a global perspective. For instance, we spent time on global instruments like the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Just like Been Management Consulting does. But, ultimately, when you really want to speed up the transition to a more sustainable world, I think you should look at our energy system. I think I’ll have most positive impact when working on the transition from fossil-based to a renewable energy system. For me the two are a natural combination.”

What will you be working on at Been Management Consulting?

“I will be looking into high energy consuming companies in The Netherlands. Think of chemical plants, high-tech production companies, or airports. How are they managing the energy transition? And, more urgently, how are they coping with the booming energy prices since the start of the Ukraine war? When you follow the news, you’ll hear some companies have stopped their production processes altogether and some have accelerated their sustainable plans. And some are less affected because they’ve already made progress in reducing and renewing their energy consumption. I’m interested to learn what strategies companies use. I will be doing in-depth interviews with 10 companies first. Then, I’ll be testing my first findings with a large-scale survey. The goal is to provide companies with best practices.”

Sounds good! What kind of companies can join this research?

“Any company that uses more than 200,000 kWh or 75,000 m² gas per year can join. The in-depth interview will cost you around 40 minutes and the survey around 10 minutes. You can reach out to teun.aarts@beenmc.com.”

Thanks Teun. You’ve been with us for a couple of weeks now, what’s it like here?

“It’s a new world! At university, you learn to see things theoretically. You learn to critically approach subjects, such as energy systems modeling, physics of energy production, and biobased economy. All too interesting, but I’m not able to put all this knowledge to practice. Therefore, I am happy I could start my internship at Been Management Consulting. I feel like I can learn a lot with all these professional colleagues, and I can help them with my knowledge. I look forward to the coming weeks!”

Thanks Teun, good luck with your research internship!