Automation plus digital tools can reduce costs and meet climate goals

As energy costs escalate and regulatory pressures mount, companies across the energy and mining sectors are turning to digitalization and automation not just as operational improvements, but as fundamental business imperatives. A panel discussion at the 2025 Honeywell Users Group EMEA event brought together industry leaders to explain how strategic technology adoption is reshaping everything from production optimization to carbon accounting frameworks.

The scale of opportunity in the energy and mining industries is staggering, as highlighted in the opening comments from Jim Masso, CEO of Honeywell Process Solutions (rightmost in image). He noted that more than half of all power produced on any grid worldwide is lost to waste. And with global energy demand surging, driven by data centers and renewable generation inconsistencies, the pressure on traditional producers has never been higher.

"If you're really trying to optimize the use of energy, to be smarter about how you use that 50% of energy that's now wasted, it comes down to being able to drive outcome-based solutions by automating where, when and how energy is produced, as well as how it's used," Masso said.

For Tronox, a titanium dioxide producer, this optimization challenge is existential. Machiel Keegel (second from left), the company's vice president of technology and innovation, noted that escalating energy costs across their mining and production operations make continued investment in digital infrastructure essential. Operating in a commodity business exposed to market fluctuations, Keegel noted that Tronox relies on digital systems that were unavailable just five years ago to optimize its production operations and maximize profitability.

Rethinking the regulatory framework

Beyond operational efficiency, the panel identified a critical gap in how the energy industry approaches emissions reduction. Simon Herbert (second from right), vice president of low carbon solutions at ExxonMobil, laid out the fundamental challenge: between now and 2050, the world will add 1.5 billion people while energy demand grows by at least 15%, with some projections indicating demand will grow by more than 40%. Simultaneously, about 4 billion people currently live below the modern energy minimum, with 700 million lacking any electricity access.

"The world has to find an economically viable pathway to reduce emissions while expanding energy generation," Herbert emphasized. "We call this the 'and' equation because we are wholly convinced that the world can do both, but to do so we have to change the narrative."

Herbert stressed the need for a carbon emissions accounting framework based on scientific principles and product standards, similar to the frameworks that successfully reduced sulfur in diesel and lead in gasoline. Current policies, he contended, fall short of creating the scaled demand markets needed for low-carbon energy and products.

"When we get to rational and constructive policies based on carbon emissions accounting and product standards, the world and businesses can innovate. We can create those demand markets and enable all forms of technologies to drive emissions lower," he said.

The emergence of new industry coalitions appears to signal a maturing approach to these systemic challenges, added Herbert. He pointed to the Carbon Measures Coalition, launched recently with ExxonMobil as a member, as an example of businesses pioneering new carbon emissions accounting methods. The coalition aims to provide governments, consumers and industry with accurate data to track products across their life cycles, enabling evidence-based regulation.

Strategic partnerships and business model evolution

The path to sustainability has become increasingly collaborative, according to the panel. Keegel described how Tronox uses its position as a large energy consumer to forge power purchase agreements with renewable energy providers in South Africa and Australia.

These partnerships enable the company to reduce its energy costs and carbon footprint simultaneously, delivering what he called "the biggest impact" on their operations.

Arnaud Ayral, chief operations officer at SolarDuck (center), highlighted how the company’s offshore floating solar systems are gaining traction, particularly for subsea applications where reliability and cybersecurity are considered non-negotiable. His company's approach involves partnerships with established players like Honeywell to provide the proven systems that offshore operators demand.

ExxonMobil's own digital transformation illustrates this industry shift. Five years ago, the company transformed itself to sharpen the focus on its low-carbon solutions business as a front-end strategy to help reduce others' emissions. This has extended ExxonMobil's core competency in “molecular transformation,” as Herbert put it, into carbon capture and storage, low carbon hydrogen and lithium businesses.

Such industry movements underscored Masso’s emphasis on Honeywell's role as an automation company with advanced software capable of optimizing any energy resource. Beyond automation, Masso noted that Honeywell develops process technologies that use renewable energy to create alternative clean fuels, enabling the company to serve as both a technology enabler and strategic partner to the energy industry.

From commitments to bottom line impact

The companies on the panel explained how they measure progress through different but complementary lenses. Tronox, for example, has committed to reducing emissions by 50% by 2030, tracking energy consumption and direct CO₂ emissions on a site-by-site basis. Critically, Keegel noted that their carbon reduction initiatives are contributing profitably to the bottom line, with high net present value projects exceeding initial expectations.

Honeywell focuses on direct energy consumption measurements to partner on outcomes tied directly to clients' bottom lines, including regulatory compliance, operational effectiveness and profitability.

ExxonMobil tracks both immediate impact and long-term progress. The company has more than 10 million tons per year of carbon under contract through its carbon capture and storage business, equivalent to the emissions from electricity powering two million U.S. homes.

As the industry leaders on the panel explained, digitalization and automation have evolved from operational tools to strategic enablers of business transformation in the energy and mining industries. By combining advanced technology with new partnerships and advocating for science-based policy frameworks, these companies can chart a path toward the "and" equation highlighted by Herbert: meeting growing energy demands while reducing emissions.

With the positive outcomes already established by numerous industry players, the question is no longer whether this transformation is possible, but how quickly industry can scale these technologies and approaches to meet the challenges ahead.