New tool for promotion of energy management and cleaner production on no cure, no pay basis

Abstract

Even the enterprises with very advanced management systems often do not monitor efficiency of use of important energy and material flows within their processes and therefore, have difficulty to effectively manage their resource efficiency. This paper is built upon experiences from a pilot implementation of a new tool for promotion of energy management and cleaner production developed within the Energy Management and Performance Related Savings Scheme (EMPRESS) project to promote an effective energy management system in industrial enterprises on a no-cure, no-pay basis. Ten no-cure, no-pay contracts were implemented for introducing an effective energy management system financed from corporate system savings that also result in reduction of CO2 emissions/unit of production and in savings on the overall operational costs of the enterprises. The combination of “soft” managerial approaches (Monitoring and Targeting technical services) with financing provided on a ‘no-cure, no-pay’ basis created a new tool. This new tool named MT therefore it removed some of the important barriers for implementing cleaner production. The paper distinguishes between auditing and accounting approaches in the promotion of cleaner production and argues that auditing approaches are not sufficient for completion of the learning needed for integration of cleaner production into an enterprise’s practice. It describes the new tool, M&T/ESCO which is a promising approach for more effective implementation of cleaner production . Experience from the pilot testing of the tool is illustrated with case studies from the Czech enterprises and the broader implications are discussed in the context of widespread adoption of it.