‘Energy Management’ was launched in 1977 by the then Department of Energy following the oil and energy crises; and, 30 years later, it had become a magazine called ‘Energy, resource, environmental and sustainable Management’ published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

In 1988 the Department of Energy merged its publications ‘Energy Management’ and ‘Focus’ into a single new publication.

The final March 1988 issue of the ‘Energy Management’ newspaper featured some of its front page stories, including campaigns like ‘Save It’ and ‘Monergy’, and featured solar energy and a centrespread on “making the case for investment in energy efficiency”.

By 1992 however the Department of Energy was no more, and the Energy Efficiency Office and this magazine had moved to the Department of the Environment under Michael Howard.

Environmental and development issues climbed up the agenda with the Rio Summit in 1992 and government joined with energy suppliers to set up the Energy Saving Trust (EST), with a particular focus on local information centres.

By 1999 the magazine’s title had changed to ‘Energy & Environmental Management’ to reflect both the impact of the Rio Summit and the Department’s expansion into the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions under John Prescott; and soon after the Climate Change Levy was introduced to encourage more energy saving action by industry.

The Chancellor’s Spending Review announcements in July 2000 included using some of the levy receipts to set up the Carbon Trust to accelerate the take up by business of low carbon technologies as well as a kick-start for carbon trading; and by July 2001 the Carbon Trust was up and running.

At the same time however environment issues moved from DETR to the new Defra under Margaret Beckett and there was a growing focus (after the 2002 World Summit in South Africa) on sustainable development, and all aspects of that – including procurement, production, consumption and disposal.

This was reflected in 2004 by the magazine’s title growing again to become ‘Energy, resource, environment and sustainable Management’ which, in practice, reflected both how government departments and policies had developed; but also how many managers and directors in the business and public sectors had progressed from being ‘energy managers’ to becoming responsible for ‘facilities’ or even ‘sustainability’ or ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’.

In early 2008, it become a web-only publication to be produced by its existing publishers, Ten Alps Publishing

The Energy and Environmental Management (E&EM) website will continue to digest the help and information available for you, but in a new format more suited to the 21st century with (hopefully) a smaller carbon footprint.