The Environment Agency has announced that the extension to the ESOS deadline has almost expired. The final deadline is near.

They have now written to all companies that submitted an ‘Intent to Comply’ notification advising once again of the impending deadline. They re-iterate that the Notification of Compliance must be with them as soon as possible, and by the 15th April at the latest. This can only be done after you have carried out your ESOS audit and had this approved by a Lead Assessor. So if you are nearly there, then there is a little time to finish this process. If you haven’t started or have any uncertainty about ESOS, then it really is no exaggeration to say that you must ACT NOW.

Is this the ‘final’ deadline?

Remember that the original deadline was 5 December 2015. The Environment Agency can commence ‘enforcement action’ and the chance of this as well as the consequences increase the longer you delay.

If you meet the 15th April deadline, the indications are that no enforcement action will be taken.

Under the ESOS Regulations 2014, action can include enforced remedial steps (to reduce your energy consumption), ‘financial civil penalties’ and publishing lists of non-complying companies.

If your chosen method of compliance is ISO 50001 certification, then you have a little longer - until 30 June 2016. But you still have work to do to ensure the certification is achieved and then notify the Environment Agency.

What if you can’t do it?

If you can’t meet this deadline then the best thing to do is to get in touch with the Environment Agency straight away and discuss your circumstances. Maybe this will avoid a penalty / maybe it won’t. Probably worth a try though. They have a specific ESOS helpdesk set up for this purpose.

Does ESOS matter?

ESOS will save you money if it’s done effectively and your savings will be greater than the associated costs. Of course it will reduce your environmental impact at the same time. If you’d like to contact us to discuss your company’s ESOS compliance in particular then please do so via our ESOS services page.