Enterpirse Awards finalist Watt Footprint looking to expand to foreign markets

It is a case of “exciting times” in the offices of the Mullingar firm Watt Footprint which has been named as a finalist in this year’s National Enterprise Awards – the only Westmeath business on the list.

Within just that two and a half year timeframe, the firm has already brought staff levels up to 16, and is poised to move to larger premises from its present location at Marlinstown Business Park.

The chairman of Watt Footprint is Paul O’Reilly, formerly of ORS, and the CEO is Paul Mahon: “It was an idea I had for a long time and it was started by myself and Paul in September 2020 – at the height of Covid,” says Paul O’Reilly.

Both Pauls are engineers, and the rest of the team is a mix of energy auditors and energy efficiency engineers. What gives the firm the edge is that it offers a start-to-end service: “We do an energy report on a building and then carry out the remedial works: that is the business. We deliver on energy efficiency and then we carry out the project,” explains Mr O’Reilly.

“We see it through from start to finish and that’s why the business is successful.

“Lots of people are talking about saving energy, but we’re doing it by carrying out projects – not by talking about it: that’s probably the difference.”

Although still a young company, the Watt Footprint team is already also looking at embracing opportunities for its type of specialist service in markets abroad:

“We operate across the 32 counties and we’re looking at the UK, the Middle East and Spain and Portugal.

“If you think about this particular businesses, it’s energy efficiency. So it’s a global issue, you know. There’s no business today but this business that has targets for 2030 and 2050 so it’s right and proper that we go and scale it and internationalise it.”

Mr O’Reilly operates off the premise that “the cheapest kilowatt saved is the one you don’t use”, so there while there isn’t always that much low-hanging fruit that can bring an immediate benefit to clients, Watt Footprint looks at making savings in processes as a starting point: “We can find 10% to 15% of energy that can be just switched off and then made more efficient; then you have thermostat controls and temperature controls; it’s about having a mindset about managing energy better.

“What we would do is we put in a meter and we’d measure when and how the electricity is being used; we see anything that’s being used when the business and the power should be off: you’d be surprised how much energy is used after the doors and lights are apparently turned off – there can be so many pumps and piping systems on, so we get them first.

“And then we get to the renewables – PV in particular and so on.”