How Leaders Can Get Strategic About Energy Costs

by Penelope Crossley, Danielle Kent, Glenn Platt and Lee White

March 27, 2026

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Summary.

Most businesses, especially small to medium-sized ones, still treat energy like rent: essential, predictable, and largely outside managerial control. That era is ending as energy prices and supply volatility shift from being marginal operating-cost questions to board-level resilience, strategy, and competitiveness issues.

Penelope Crossley is a Professor of Law and ARC Senior Research Fellow at Sydney Law School in Sydney, Australia, specialising in the legal frameworks governing the energy transition and serving as an Expert Legal Consultant to the United Nations.

Danielle Kent is a Horizon Fellow at the University of Sydney Business School in Sydney Australia. Her research examines behavioural decision-making under uncertainty and its impact on financial strategy and organisational performance.

Glenn Platt is the Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation at Emergent Group, an entrepreneur in renewable energy and clean technologies, and former CSIRO Research Director for energy systems.

Lee White is a Horizon Fellow at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on energy transition regulation, governance, and the equity and consumer impacts of climate and energy policy.

Read more on Operations and supply chain management or related topics Costing, Risk management, Managing uncertainty and Budgets and budgeting

How Leaders Can Get Strategic About Energy Costs

Summary.

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