Companies that actually contribute to solving current environmental and social problems should be given priority in the allocation of scarce energy, says Rob van der Rijt, founder of Klimaatplein. “For example, you could say that you will be at the back of the queue if you do not comply with all environmental, climate and health regulations within three years.”

The consequences of energy scarcity are already clear, and according to Van der Riet, this justifies more selectivity in the allocation of electricity. “At the moment, not every company has access to energy or water, so this is already happening. If you look at which companies contribute to happiness and which companies contribute to making the Netherlands less healthy, you will find that choices are quickly made.

In collaboration with the University of Amsterdam, van der Riet has proposed setting a limit on the amount of energy that can be used per day. The Dutch business community in particular still wastes a huge amount of kilowatt-hours of electricity every day. “We actually flush it down the drain, like incorrectly adjusted climate and compressed air installations. You can reduce energy consumption significantly with a number of very simple measures.”

According to van der Rijt, a national energy waste programme could help companies meet their obligations. “The Energy Saving Act states that every SME must take all the energy saving measures that they can offset within five years. I think a quarter of companies comply with this law. So you can help them with that, perhaps even more strongly than we have done in the last 30 years. This also results in a very short payback period.”

There is a lot of experience available.

Almost half of the current Dutch wind capacity on land and offshore could be avoided by treating this waste, says van der Riet. And that doesn’t take much effort: After all, the expertise is plentiful in the Netherlands. “By setting everything up correctly – and you can do it in a day – you can solve this huge energy waste problem. And with that you can immediately solve the grid congestion problem to a large extent.”

It is now well known that the Netherlands suffers from a lack of sustainable energy transport – in other words: too few cables to supply Dutch companies with energy. By consuming much less and collectively combating energy waste, you create energy and space for entrepreneurship. “In addition to the fact that it generates a lot of money, it is also a very social act for your neighbours to prevent energy waste.”

Cheap energy leads to more consumption.

Van der Rijt himself sees the paradox: by combating energy waste with efficiency measures, energy becomes cheaper, and so there is a good chance of consuming more. This is not precisely the intention. “We simply have this capacity, and moreover, the sustainable energy we want to generate requires a lot of rare earth minerals, from countries that do not extract them properly: under poor working conditions, with massive destruction of biodiversity and pumping of groundwater.”

For this reason alone, it is useful to see which sectors in the Netherlands contribute sufficiently to solving environmental and social problems now and in the future. “You can set a maximum energy capacity.” We will consume more and more electricity because of electricity. Then you have to organize it in such a way that the rebound effect does not lead to more energy consumption.

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