Energy and utility management for food and beverage

Refrigeration, process heat, and cleaning make food and beverage plants some of the heaviest users of energy and water in manufacturing. Nectar collects and validates every electricity, gas, water, sewer, and waste bill, tracks energy and water per unit produced, and keeps the data customers and auditors ask for ready year-round.

Stainless steel tanks in a dairy processing plant

Food and beverage plants run refrigeration and process cooling around the clock, burn natural gas for boilers, ovens, and pasteurization, and use large volumes of water for production and cleaning. Wastewater bills often add surcharges based on the strength of what goes down the drain. Production is seasonal, margins are thin, and retail customers increasingly ask suppliers for energy, water, and emissions data every year.

Nectar brings every one of those bills into one validated data set, parsed at the line-item level, so plant, sustainability, and finance teams can see where energy and water costs come from and how they change with production.

Challenge

Water and sewer bills include surcharges that are hard to check.

Solution

Nectar parses water and sewer bills at the line-item level, separates volume charges from surcharges, and flags changes when each bill arrives so they can be checked against your own sampling and production records.

Challenge

Refrigeration and process loads run constantly, so anomalies hide in the bill.

Solution

Every new bill is checked against its history and tariff, demand spikes and unusual usage are flagged when the bill is processed, and interval data, where available, shows load by hour.

Challenge

Retail customers ask for emissions and water data every year.

Solution

Electricity, gas, water, and waste data are collected continuously with an audit trail and exported to your carbon accounting platform, so customer questionnaires and sustainability reports use the same numbers.

Energy and water per unit produced

Custom variables hold monthly production volume by plant, in pounds, gallons, cases, or any other unit, so energy and water intensity are tracked per unit of output. Water analytics can be split by municipal, potable, and well water, and waste data uses measured weights where haulers report them.

Plants are compared on the same basis, and the AI agent answers questions such as which plant used the most water per unit last quarter, with every answer citing the bills behind it.

Bottling line with bottles on a conveyor

Collection that keeps up with every plant

Thomas Foods International uses Nectar to collect and organize utility data across its US facilities, automating more than 90% of its utility data collection and replacing manual bill downloads and spreadsheet entry.

The same data supports energy projects and the rebates and incentives that fund them. Nectar identifies the sites with the most opportunity, applies for utility programs with your approval, and measures results against a weather-normalized baseline.

Trucks at a refrigerated warehouse loading dock

Why food and beverage teams choose Nectar

Nectar automated data collection — platform dashboard screenshot

Data

Electricity, gas, water, sewer, and waste parsed at 99.2% accuracy, with production-based intensity and measured waste weights, all traceable to the source bill.

Automation

Bills collected from 7,000+ utilities as they are issued, surcharges and anomalies flagged on arrival, and data pushed to ENERGY STAR and 20+ carbon, ESG, and ERP integrations.

Service

Human review of flagged bills, hauler and utility follow-up, and a named customer success manager who keeps every plant complete before reporting deadlines.

What changes for food and beverage teams

More than 90% of collection automated

Before Nectar, plant teams downloaded bills and keyed them into spreadsheets. After, bills arrive and are parsed without anyone chasing them.

→ Automated bill collection

Water and sewer charges checked

Before Nectar, wastewater surcharges were paid as billed. After, each charge is separated and flagged when it changes, with the source bill attached.

→ Utility bill audits

Waste managed with utilities

Before Nectar, hauler invoices sat outside the utility data. After, waste cost, tonnage, and diversion by site sit in the same data set.

→ Waste and recycling

“Thanks to Nectar's innovative solution, we can accurately assess our environmental impact, becoming a pioneer in sustainability among our peers.”

Jeremy Pike, Sustainability Leader at Idaho Milk Products — Nectar customer
Jeremy PikeSustainability LeaderIdaho Milk Products
→ Read the case study

Frequently asked questions

Does Nectar handle water and wastewater bills?

Yes. Water and sewer are collected and parsed alongside electricity, gas, steam, fuel, and waste. Volume charges, fixed charges, and surcharges are separated on each bill, and water analytics can be filtered by water type.

Can we track energy per pound or gallon produced?

Yes. Enter or import monthly production for each plant as a custom variable, then use it as the intensity denominator in analytics and exports.

Which carbon accounting platforms does Nectar export to?

Nectar exports to 20+ carbon, ESG, and ERP integrations, including Watershed, Sphera, Metrio, Persefoni, Sinai, and Carbonfact, plus ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and Excel.

One platform for every utility decision

Utility bill management, energy cost management and procurement, and sustainability reporting in one system, shared by energy, finance, operations, and sustainability teams.

Nectar utility bill management — utility data management feature

Utility bill management

Every bill for every utility, waste, and telecom account collected, parsed at the line-item level, and tracked against its expected date.

Automated bill collectionData completenessAudit trailAI agent and smart reports
Nectar sustainability reporting and benchmarks — utility data management feature

Sustainability reporting and benchmarks

Audit-ready data for ESG reporting, site benchmarks, ENERGY STAR sync, and exports to carbon accounting platforms.

BenchmarksENERGY STAR Portfolio ManagerESG and carbon integrationsWaste and recycling
Nectar bill audit, bill pay, and ap — utility data management feature

Bill audit, bill pay, and AP

Errors caught before payment, past overcharges recovered, and validated bills paid on time or delivered to your AP system.

Utility bill auditsHistorical bill auditUtility bill paymentsAP and ERP integration
Nectar energy cost management and procurement — utility data management feature

Energy cost management and procurement

Tariff and rate optimization, demand management, and procurement advisory. Customers typically save 3 to 5% of annual utility spend.

Tariff and rate optimizationDemand managementProcurement advisoryBudgeting and forecasts

Loved by customers in every industry

Customer Stories
Featured

How Thomas Foods automated more than 90% of its utility data collection

Thomas Foods International uses Nectar to collect and organize utility data across its US facilities, replacing manual bill downloads and spreadsheet entry.

“Using Nectar has significantly streamlined the process of gathering and analyzing our utility data. The platform just works!”
Jonathan R., Sustainability Director at Thomas Foods Int., USA — Nectar customer

Jonathan R.

Sustainability Director, Thomas Foods Int., USA

Read the case studyFeatured

Stanwich Energy Boosts Client Value with Nectar's Utility Data Solution

Stanwich Energy announces a new partnership with Nectar to enhance the customer experience through advanced, AI-powered utility data services.

“Partnering with Nectar's AI-driven platform has been groundbreaking, allowing us to tackle changes faster and skip the outdated, painful integration required by other solutions. Having the right information is the first step, and Nectar is exactly what we have been looking for to make that happen.”
Matt Shaw, Managing Director at Stanwich Energy — Nectar customer

Matt Shaw

Managing Director, Stanwich Energy

Read the case study
Jeremy Pike, Sustainability Leader at Idaho Milk Products — Nectar customer

Jeremy Pike

Sustainability Leader, Idaho Milk Products

“Thanks to Nectar's innovative solution, we can accurately assess our environmental impact, becoming a pioneer in sustainability among our peers.”

John O'Connell, CEO and Founder at Stanwich Energy — Nectar customer

John O'Connell

CEO and Founder, Stanwich Energy

“Nectar enables faster insights, smarter forecasting, and more accurate budget tracking. It also strengthens our ability to deliver on key sustainability goals by providing real-time visibility into usage and emissions.”

Matt Greening, Founder and Director at Nettzero — Nectar customer

Matt Greening

Founder and Director, Nettzero

“Nectar serves as a reliable and cost-effective technology solution to extract, store, and analyse sustainability data leading to enhanced reporting capabilities and streamlined workflows.”

Ready to get started with Nectar?

Try your utility bill on our live demo or get in touch

Try it with my utility billBook a demo

Learn more about Nectar

How hard can data collection get? What has worked for companies? We've got it all covered.

Utility bill management and AI — Nectar blog

Utility bill management and AI

How AI changes utility bill management, from automated data extraction and anomaly detection to centralized control of utility spend across a portfolio.

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How Nectar parses granular utility cost data — Nectar blog

How Nectar parses granular utility cost data

How Nectar separates supply, delivery, and demand charges on every bill, so energy and finance teams can see exactly what drives utility spend.

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Carbon accounting requires accurate utility data collection — Nectar blog

Carbon accounting requires accurate utility data collection

Carbon accounting has 3 steps: data collection, emissions calculation, and data reporting. Error rates of 10% in data collection compound into worse error in the CDP report. Garbage in, garbage out.

Read more

Nectar is an AI-native utility bill management platform for commercial and industrial organizations, with 99.2% line-item parsing accuracy, coverage of 7,000+ utility providers, and automated data collection.

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Data Completeness ViewAutomated Data CollectionCarbon Accounting IntegrationsAudit TrailTariff and Rate OptimizationsLate Penalties and Tax TrackingUtility Bill PaymentsUtility Bill AuditsBudgeting and ForecastsBenchmarks and AuditsEnergyStar IntegrationDemand ManagementHistorical Bill AuditProcurement AdvisoryProjects, Rebates, and Grid ProgramsWaste and RecyclingUtility Account Open and CloseAP and ERP IntegrationAI Agent and Smart Reports