Why heat pumps are central to industrial decarbonisation and energy resilience

In 2025, research by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) found that 64% of businesses had adopted energy efficiency measures, such as upgrading to LED lighting, installing more insulation, or cutting down on unnecessary energy consumption. 

These commercially viable and policy-supported efforts have mainly targeted the indirect Scope 2 emissions of purchased energy, but with 2030 net zero targets now looming, businesses need to address the other barrier to decarbonisation: Scope 1 emissions.

These are the emissions produced by sources a business owns or controls directly. For most, this means electrifying industrial heat processes, such as drying, pasteurising, and chemical transformation, which rely especially on fossil fuels. 

Faced with this challenge, businesses have an opportunity to both take stock of the risks and unlock the material benefits of improving energy resilience. Ahead of 2030, and with an eye towards embedding long-term sustainability as a business priority, electrifying heat becomes vital and heat pumps offer one potential solution to this pressing problem.

Heat pumps and the electrification of heat as a low carbon energy solution

Industrial heat pumps provide the most effective low carbon solution for low-temperature (<200°C) processes and produce 3-5 more times the efficiency gains than that of gas boilers. 

Using clean electricity to power these heat pumps can eradicate Scope 1 emissions entirely, making this an attractive energy move for businesses – yet the same research from the BCC which found 64% of businesses were adopting energy efficiency measures found only 7% of firms were using heat pumps. 

This technology remains underutilised and businesses that begin planning implementation now, by assessing viability, costs, and integration pathways, will find themselves ahead of the curve.

Heat pumps do not offer an immediate energy solution to businesses: industrial heat pump projects can take up to 2.5 years to deliver, excluding grid upgrades. Their value comes from offering a long-term energy resilient strategy which businesses can rely on in the face of risks such as rising energy costs, market volatility, and increased regulatory scrutiny of environmental impact.

Addressing Scope 1 emissions is a vital part of getting on track to achieving 2030 climate targets, and businesses ought to act immediately to access the potential which electric heat pumps provide.

Energy resilience as material benefit

To achieve long-term energy resilience, businesses must also move away from project-to-project decarbonisation towards integrated energy strategies which combine efficiency, flexibility, on-site generation, and operational innovation. A systems-thinking approach to reducing carbon emissions not only increases resilience and improves project viability, it also encourages greater investment by bolstering security and sustainability long-term.

Policy support for the energy transition remains strong, and now more than ever businesses are being held to high standards on meeting their low carbon targets. 

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This is both as a result of increasingly stringent environmental disclosure requirements but also mounting consumer expectations that businesses live up to their sustainability commitments. By tackling Scope 1 emissions with heat pumps, businesses can progress towards fulfilling their ESG frameworks. The benefits of this go beyond the environmental, bringing businesses into favour with investors, regulators, and the wider public.

Delaying addressing Scope 1 emissions, and the net zero targets they underpin, puts business at risk of reputational damage, financial liabilities, and missed opportunities. Failure to implement energy resilience therefore has serious material consequences for businesses. Not only does it impact market positioning as businesses lose ground to their greener competitors, but it also poses a threat to talent retention, particularly as younger generations value the ESG credibility of their workplace. Climate leadership attracts talent, capital, and loyalty, promising real advantages for businesses who take up the reigns.

What’s more, in the face of geopolitical instability and rising energy costs, an energy resilient strategy protects businesses against policy swings and market disruptions. 

The challenge of all this for businesses is to maintain a focused strategy amidst an economically volatile market. This requires an energy strategy centred on long-term resilience. By eradicating Scope 1 emissions, the electrification of heat through industrial heat pumps offers businesses an energy resilient pathway towards achieving their renewable and net zero energy goals.

About the author

Stephen Horrax is Director of Business Area Energy, UK & Ireland for Ramboll, a global architecture, engineering and consultancy company, based in Denmark. Horrax works on policy, investment development and strategic projects and programmes, whilst working for and within UK Government, academia, commercial consulting and the private sector.