US manufacturers face rising energy costs and grid pressure, making reliable power critical for production and growth.
By Rachel Delacour, Co-founder & CEO, Sweep
US manufacturers continue to face rising energy costs that are constraining growth. As a result of rapid electrification and increasing pressure on the grid, manufacturers are now confronting a new operational challenge: can they reliably secure the power needed to sustain production?
Today, many remain unaware of the valuable strategic insights and data available which could unlock an effective energy strategy. The advantage lies with companies that turn this critical data into business intelligence accessible to every department, from operations to finance to procurement. Companies must explore new ways to manage energy, carbon and costs, including building platforms that provide accurate, auditable data to support energy-efficient growth.
Ongoing disruptions from the Strait of Hormuz and other world events have caused oil prices to spike 13% in a single month, adding increased concern for manufacturers. Despite a shaky ceasefire, oil prices are still at
With uncertainty continuing around US-Iran peace talks, and the IEA initiating the release of 400 million barrels of emergency oil reserves to stabilise supply and curb further price volatility. At the same time, clean energy investment reached record highs of $2.2 trillion in 2025, perhaps unsurprisingly, as renewables increasingly provide the price stability and energy security that fossil fuels no longer can.
Transition risk is now an urgent operational challenge which company executives need to treat the same as any other material business risk. Driven by this urgency, manufacturers who are now rethinking their approach to energy procurement are leading the market by investing in on-site generation and embedding sustainability data into core operational and financial decision-making. As market conditions place increasing strain on an industry heavily reliant on cost-efficient access to energy, companies that fail to treat energy and carbon data with the same level of rigour and scrutiny risk losing their competitive advantage.
For years, sustainability in manufacturing was heavily tied to efficiency, where success equated to waste reduction, improvement to lower energy intensity and, in general, doing more with less. But given how quickly world events are evolving, that framing now falls short.
Today’s agenda is now dominated by the quest for greater resilience, and the ability to maintain operations when critical systems are put under increasing stress. For manufacturers, this determines whether production can continue through energy price spikes or supply disruptions, whether margins can be protected in energy-intensive processes and whether long-term capital investments remain viable.
Those that remain dependent on fossil fuels will continue to face an immediate operational risk. It’s becoming ever clearer that resilience means structurally reducing exposure to oil and gas before shocks hit, not simply reacting to them.
There is a considerable amount of variation across the manufacturing sector when it comes to the maturity of data management. This lack of visibility and control leaves less-prepared businesses on the back foot. At the moment, financial data sits in ERP platforms while nonfinancial data is managed separately, often in spreadsheets or multiple disconnected tools. Without a consolidated view, decision-making slows, precision suffers and the numbers become harder to defend. Leaders are making high-stakes calls on energy procurement, capital investment and supplier strategy without a clear picture of how cost, carbon and operational risk interact.
These differences in approach to financial and nonfinancial data cause a level of friction that threatens a manufacturer’s ability to adapt at speed. Companies have spent decades finessing their methods to manage financial data, so they may not realise it, but they are indeed well-placed to implement the same methodologies across sustainability datasets.
A particular area of focus for manufacturers should be their extensive supply chains. These bring with them an elevated need for greater visibility and control over the multiple data sources from different sites, business units and regions. It also means producing audit-ready, decision-grade information for all stakeholders, who are placing increasing weight on the quality and credibility of this data. This consolidation has become absolutely critical to underpin all decisions with precision, defensibility and longevity – from on-site generation, energy contracts, production planning and supplier selection.
Few business leaders question whether a financial system has a business case. No one defers an ERP because the regulatory environment feels uncertain. These tools are infrastructure, because accurate, auditable financial data is non-negotiable.
Sustainability data now carries the same obligation. When energy and emissions data is managed with the same rigour as financial reporting, it stops being a compliance input and becomes something far more valuable: the intelligence behind capital allocation, supplier selection and production planning. For manufacturers navigating volatile energy markets, that shift is now an operational necessity.
In a market increasingly defined by reliable and efficient access to energy, manufacturers that treat sustainability as a core operational strategy will be better positioned to support investment decisions, improve production flexibility and remain competitive in a volatile energy market.
The manufacturers that will lead the next decade are those that can absorb shocks, maintain operations and hold their ESG goal trajectory despite inevitable instability. Strategic energy use management will be a strong competitive advantage. Some are already proving that sustainability is a source of operational resilience and long-term value.
About the Author:
Sweep cofounder and CEO Rachel Delacour is an award-wining repeat entrepreneur with a background in finance. In 2009, she cofounded BIME Analytics, a pioneering business intelligence SaaS which was acquired by US customer service company Zendesk six years later. Rachel worked there as General Manager until she decided to use her talent to help clean the climate mess with Sweep.
A leading female figure in European tech, Rachel was elected co-President of France Digitale in 2018 and her thought leadership has been featured in The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. An advocate for women in tech, she has backed several female-founded US and French startups.
