Building Utility Cost Intelligence across 215 facilities for a global chemical distributor
Growth by acquisition left a chemical distributor with more than 1,000 utility accounts, 87 providers, about 350 invoices a month and no consistent process across 45 states and 7 provinces.
The problem
Each acquired site managed its own utilities. Data was collected by hand, bill accuracy could not be verified, and ESG reporting took weeks of assembly.
What Discovery put in place
- Consolidated invoice management across every provider.
- A central reporting dashboard in TaraBase.
- Ongoing utility audits, not a one-time review.
- A standard onboarding path for newly acquired facilities.
- Greenhouse gas and climate disclosure reporting.
- Benchmarking across facilities.
Results
More than $500,000 in recurring annual savings, more than $300,000 in refunds, and hundreds of administrative hours saved each month. Late payments fell and confidence in bill accuracy rose. More than 85 employees in finance, operations, procurement and sustainability now use TaraBase across 13 regions.
A sample of the data
In 2025, the portfolio's gas use peaked above 20 million kWh-equivalent in winter, fell to about 4 million by mid-summer and returned to roughly 19 million by December, while electricity held between 5 and 7 million kWh a month. One billing cycle alone covered $76,206.03 in charges, 1,058,183.64 kWh and 529.09 metric tons of CO2e, each traceable to the bill it came from.