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Amarant Care Organization is taking serious steps toward making its energy supply more sustainable. Together with partner COMCAM and energy supplier SEFE Energy, Amarant strives for CO₂ neutrality and maximum energy savings. With Energy Portfolio Management, a comprehensive Energy Management System, and 100% green electricity, Amarant aims to realize its ambition of being a frontrunner in the healthcare sector.
Stichting Amarant is a care organization for people with a (mild) intellectual disability, autism, or acquired brain injury, with various locations across North Brabant. Its 5,000 employees and 2,000 volunteers provide different forms of care to approximately 5,000 clients of all ages. This includes residential care, treatment, and support in work and daytime activities. The organization manages 430 buildings, including residential facilities, office buildings, schools, swimming pools, a printing company, a bakery, shops, and various workshops.
Amarant is committed to sustainability and responsible energy use. The care organization has signed the Green Deal 3.0 for healthcare, thereby committing itself to the ambitious goal of reducing CO₂ emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 2008. By 2050, this CO₂ reduction must reach 100%. To achieve this target, Amarant has entered into a unique collaboration with COMCAM Energy and energy supplier SEFE Energy (Securing Energy For Europe). COMCAM Energy’s services include Energy Portfolio Management, the use of the Energy Intelligence management system for monitoring, energy procurement, and advice on energy savings. Thanks to COMCAM, Amarant came into contact with SEFE Energy, which since January 1, 2024, has been supplying 100% Dutch green electricity as well as gas. In September 2024, the contract was extended for three years.
100% green electricity
Amarant’s buildings have 1,046 electricity connections for small-scale consumption, approximately 50 connections for large-scale consumption, and 682 gas connections. Jelle de Wit, Amarant’s Sustainability and Energy Project Manager, is delighted with the special collaboration with COMCAM and SEFE Energy. “We have made a conscious decision to use 100% green electricity and pay more than a hundred thousand euros extra per year for it. We also want to make our entire portfolio more sustainable. To do this, we need to know where we stand, and COMCAM helps us gain insight into this with their Energy Intelligence system. Through that system, we receive monthly reports from every location, every cluster, and all divisions. At our request, these reports now also include consumption per square meter.”
Insight into energy consumption
For the 50 large-use connections, an energy management system (EMS) is mandatory. To gain more insight into energy consumption across all locations, Amarant has extended the EMS to small-use connections as well. De Wit: “We want to achieve a reduction in emissions across the board. We will use COMCAM’s reports to understand the behavior of our residents and employees and then act on that. The energy use of residents and employees plays a crucial role in our overall consumption.” In addition to consumption per square meter, Amarant uses the EMS to look at the age of the buildings, set temperatures, outside temperatures, usage patterns, and energy-saving opportunities.
“Amarant was looking for a total solution: a favorable energy contract and, in addition, ways to reduce CO2 emissions and save energy,” says Nadia Poortvliet, Head of Portfolio Management at COMCAM Energy. “They use COMCAM’s Energy Intelligence, a complete energy management system to map out energy consumption at all their locations. With that system, we read all of Amarant’s meters and sensors and report on them monthly. This gives them the ability to influence energy consumption, right down to the level of an individual apartment.”
Green Deal in healthcare
John van Kuijk is director of the Community Living division at Amarant and acting director of Services, which includes responsibility for the energy contract. His main focus was to secure a solid new energy contract—one that would provide Amarant with future certainty, be financially attractive, and offer opportunities to realize the healthcare organization’s sustainability ambitions. Van Kuijk: “In that search, the combination of COMCAM and SEFE Energy proved to be the best fit. COMCAM was already our partner in energy matters and introduced us to SEFE Energy. With this contract—providing us with 100% green electricity—we have already reached an important milestone within the Green Deal in healthcare. We are well on track.”
Influencing energy behavior
The next step is to make Amarant’s residents and employees more aware of their energy consumption—something that, according to Van Kuijk, is harder to achieve. “We are now taking the first step: gaining insight into energy use across all facilities, homes, workspaces, offices, you name it. Because if you want people to use energy more consciously, you first need to know where that is necessary. With data from the Energy Intelligence system, we can run analyses and make targeted adjustments. We have more than 400 buildings, some of which house up to thirty people. In the past, we had little visibility into what was happening with energy use in such a building; now we can see it at the unit level. Based on that data, we want to spark a cultural shift. That’s new for us, and it’s something we’re now gaining experience with. We are deliberately choosing a positive approach to awareness, for example by encouraging energy savings through fun challenges.”
The data also allows us to make comparisons between locations and analyze the causes of differences, Van Kuijk says. “If one home uses significantly more energy than comparable homes, there’s a reason for that. Is the thermostat malfunctioning? Is the building poorly insulated? Is an electric heater often being used? With this knowledge, we can take targeted measures.”
“You’re heating too much; that needs to come down.” But we cannot—and do not want to—directly control the temperature in clients’ rooms. Those rooms often have their own thermostat, and the residents have the freedom to make their own choices.”
“You’re heating too much”
According to Jelle de Wit, influencing awareness among residents and employees is not only the biggest component in energy savings, but also the most difficult. “For common areas such as offices, living rooms in residential facilities, workshops and the like, we have a temperature policy with rules for thermostat settings. For those spaces I can say: ‘You’re heating too much; that needs to come down.’ But we cannot and do not want to directly control the temperature in clients’ rooms. Those rooms often have their own thermostat and the residents have the freedom to make their own choices, which we do not want and are not allowed to restrict. They rent a room, apartment or studio from us and behind that door it is not up to us. We sometimes notice that residents have the impression that Amarant covers the costs anyway, which can lead to careless energy use, such as leaving windows open for long periods while the heating is on high. When that happens we start the conversation and hold workshops at the client level to respond to it and make them aware.”
Raising awareness among employees can also be challenging, says De Wit. “Employees may say: ‘I am here to provide care and cannot pay attention to everything.’ But in general, I do see that employees are intrinsically motivated to work on this. We want to give a platform to the people at a location who are taking the lead on this issue and show others what they have achieved there. I think that works well for raising awareness. We can also substantiate that very well with the reports from the EMS.”
Conscious choice
for a better future
Murat Bilgen, sales manager at SEFE Energy, says that Stichting Amarant is directly contributing to the energy transition by choosing 100% green electricity. “The electricity they use comes from renewable sources such as solar and wind in the Netherlands. This reduces their CO2 footprint and represents a conscious choice for a better future. We truly see this collaboration as a long-term partnership, with both Amarant and COMCAM, and I am proud that we can facilitate this as an energy supplier.”
Energy portfolio management
Bilgen: “For us, COMCAM is a reliable partner we have been working with for years. This collaboration is valuable because not every intermediary knows what energy portfolio management is or can offer it properly. For this subject, a solid level of expertise is required, and COMCAM has knowledge of the energy market that stands out in terms of quality and depth. That is a prerequisite for good energy portfolio management, because then you can purchase energy at the right time on energy trading exchanges. Timing is the key.” Bilgen also knows Stichting Amarant from the past. “What makes Amarant special to me is that it shows how corporate social responsibility and sustainability reinforce each other in practice. By making conscious choices, Amarant creates a tangible positive impact on both people and the environment.”
Further sustainability
With the choice for sustainable electricity, Amarant shows, according to Poortvliet from COMCAM, that they are a frontrunner in their sector. “In addition, they are increasingly reducing their gas use with sustainable projects in solar panels and heat pumps and further shrinking their CO2 footprint. It may not be possible to reduce CO2 emissions to zero at all locations, but for that they will buy certificates from other organizations to achieve net zero. That’s a step most organizations in this sector do not take, because it simply costs money. That makes them a frontrunner and a great partner for us to work with. They understand the risks and realize that you have to look more than a year ahead and make a long-term plan. That fits perfectly with our way of working. This enables us to align Amarant’s energy procurement strategy optimally with their broader sustainability strategy.”
“We are therefore not tied to the volumes we consume, which you often see in the large business market. That you have to pay extra if you consume less.”
In the coming years, Amarant wants to reduce CO2 emissions by using less and less gas. De Wit: “Because we now have green electricity, the big gain in CO2 reduction lies in using less gas and electrification. We are now mapping out which boilers need to be replaced in 2026 and 2027, and what options there are to replace them with a sustainable alternative and what is required for that. Last year, some old boilers were still replaced with new boilers, so that process will continue for another 15 years. In some buildings, a heat pump is simply not feasible. We insulate old buildings where possible and replace lighting with LED.”
SEFE Energy has offered us a flexible contract in the sense that we can reduce our consumption, says De Wit. “We are therefore not tied to the volumes we consume, which you often see in the large business market. That you have to pay extra if you consume less. Now, I don’t think we will consume less electricity—this will only increase in the future due to heat pumps and electrification. But hopefully our gas consumption will decrease drastically.”
Good cooperation
All three parties are satisfied with how the cooperation works in practice. Bilgen from SEFE Energy says the lines are short and the contact is pleasant. “The cooperation between COMCAM and SEFE Energy has been excellent for many years, which means Amarant has ended up with smooth and well-coordinated service. As portfolio manager and supplier, we are well attuned to each other, so we can switch quickly and efficiently via phone, email, or WhatsApp whenever necessary.” De Wit from Amarant says it is very easy to coordinate with SEFE Energy. “We have apartments that are sometimes rented by a client who does pay the energy bill. Then there is sometimes temporary vacancy because a client has left. In that case, we take over the energy bill. An employee manages the registering and deregistering of connections, and that runs smoothly. No hassle with fines or administrative red tape.” Poortvliet is also pleased with SEFE Energy as a partner in this collaboration. “We greatly value their contribution to realizing Amarant’s energy ambitions. I hope we can continue like this for a long time and that Amarant will keep involving us as a sparring partner in their plans.”
Energy management is a continuous process, says Poortvliet. “It is no longer something you look at once when your contract expires. You have to deal with it constantly because it has become enormously complex. Reliable energy supply is really about the survival of your organization. It has simply become a strategic asset.”