AUDIT2MEASURE Report of barriers affecting the uptake of ESM in companies

Despite mandatory energy audits for large industrial companies in EU Member States and the recommendations in these audits to implement Energy Saving Measures (ESM) to save energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, the actual implementation of these measures remains low. There are reasons for this, in the form of obstacles or barriers, which this report examines as the final building block in a three-part series of reports on audit systems in the European Union and ESM implementation in European industrial companies. 

The aim of this report is to examine which economic, organisational, behavioural, informational and regulatory barriers have the greatest impact on the uptake and non-take of ESM in industrial companies and, in the end, provide a basis for further project activities of the AUDIT2MEASURE project. In particular, it examines the differences between different ESM types, companies of different subsectors of the manufacturing sector, including all sectors classified under the NACE C code, varying sizes and companies with different ESM and/or climate protection strategies. The results of the report will be relevant to the following steps of the A2M project. The development of the Audit2Action strategy, the capacity building programme for companies and the direct and continuous support to companies to improve their energy efficiency are all based on the identification of the most relevant barriers to ESM implementation in industrial companies. The Audit2Action strategy will be designed to overcome each of the identified barriers by supporting decision makers in industrial companies to adopt ESM considering the energy audits conducted. They will be supported through trainings and capacity building activities that build on the Audit2Action strategy. Ongoing support will be provided to companies to enable them to address new barriers as they arise, to ensure the sustainability of the project. The project concludes with a report with policy recommendations, which primarily addresses regulatory and political barriers to the implementation of ESM in the industry and builds on the results of the entire project.