Takeaways from our webinar featuring Redaptive CFO John Sullivan and Verdantix principal analyst Connor Taylor, hosted by Jessica Hunt, co-owner of E+E Leader. Listen to the full webinar recording here
Finance teams used to treat energy as a predictable operating expense. But today, that assumption is breaking down. Rising demand, price volatility, and grid instability are widening the gap between organizations that manage energy as a strategic asset and those still reacting to disruption as it happens.
In a recent Redaptive webinar co-hosted by Environment+Energy Leader, John Sullivan, CFO of Redaptive, and Connor Taylor, principal analyst at Verdantix, examined new survey data and what it means for how companies should plan in the years ahead.
Energy price volatility is now the top concern
Verdantix recently conducted a survey of 350 corporate energy leaders across the commercial and industrial sectors. For the first time, energy price volatility ranked as their leading obstacle, ahead of long-standing concerns such as the cost of capital and access to renewables.
Taylor tied the shift to geopolitics, citing disruptions in natural gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and more recent oil price spikes due to the 2026 Iran war. He also flagged grid instability as a rapidly developing risk, driven by surging AI and data center demand, as well as the variability introduced by renewables.
“Energy is not just something you need to keep the lights on,” Taylor said. “It’s a price you have to manage, and a process you have to manage to ensure operational continuity.”
The resilience strategy no one publishes
While 18% of respondents strongly agreed they had a formalized energy resilience strategy, and another 43% agreed, almost none disclose it publicly.
“I challenge you to find a formalized resilience strategy published by any listed company,” Taylor said. “People are not talking about it in the open, but resiliency is massively on the agenda.”
His larger point: resilience is no longer just insurance. It can also generate returns. For example, in high-solar markets like California, midday power prices can fall close to zero. Storing that energy in a battery or selling it back to the grid turns a cost center into a revenue source through demand flexibility and arbitrage.
Efficiency is the fastest way to add capacity
With electrification, data center growth, and industrial reshoring all pulling on the grid, Sullivan argued that efficiency is the most immediate lever a company can pull.
“Energy efficiency is the fastest way to add capacity, whether that’s back to the grid or for your own growth,” Sullivan said.
He framed it as a capital-allocation decision. Generation and storage matter, but they carry longer interconnection and permitting timelines, so companies should run efficiency in parallel and capture savings first. Verdantix’s survey backs this up: 59% of respondents said they were highly likely to increase energy efficiency, with another 31% somewhat likely.
Where finance teams should start
Asked for the single most important action over the next 12 months, both speakers gave the same answer: measure demand before changing anything.
Taylor said, “Follow the data and work out what’s actually going on in your business. You’ll be surprised how many organizations don’t have that level of insight.”
Sullivan agreed. “First and foremost, you’ve got to understand your environment. What is your consumption?” That baseline, he noted, is where Redaptive starts with a customer before prioritizing efficiency, generation, and storage opportunities across a portfolio.
From line item to strategic asset
The throughline across the webinar was a shift in ownership. Energy has moved from a fixed expense to a managed variable, and finance teams are increasingly driving the decisions rather than reporting on them after the fact. Taylor called this one of the biggest surprises in his survey: finance teams are now active in energy procurement, not just tracking the line item.
The starting point, as both speakers stressed, is the same. Baseline your consumption, then build a strategy across the portfolio.
Redaptive helps with both steps. We start by auditing your portfolio to pinpoint efficiency opportunities, then build a program that addresses them in the sequence that delivers the most impact.
From there, our team puts the program into action. We fund the HVAC, lighting, generation, and storage upgrades upfront and manage each project end to end, freeing your team from project management. You pay as you save, turning volatile spend into lower, more predictable costs while strengthening resilience across every site.
Watch the full webinar recording or talk to Redaptive about building an energy strategy across your portfolio.