Drivers, Barriers, and Success Factors for Improving Energy Management in the Pulp and Paper Industry

Akvile Lawrence, Patrik Thollander and Magnus Karlsson
Additional contact information
Akvile Lawrence: Division of Energy Systems, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden
Patrik Thollander: Division of Energy Systems, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden
Magnus Karlsson: Division of Energy Systems, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-35

Abstract: Successful energy management is a way to achieve energy efficiency in the pulp and paper industry (PPI), which is important for assuring energy supply security, for increasing economic competitiveness, and for mitigating greenhouse gases. However, research shows that although energy use within PPI can be reduced by 5.5–19.4% per year, some of this by energy management practices, energy management is not always implemented. Why is this so? What are the barriers to, and drivers of implementation? How can the barriers be overcome? A systematic review of barriers and drivers in energy management in the PPI within peer-reviewed scientific articles suggests that the world-wide events that affect energy supply, volatility, and use seemingly also affect the number and frequency of research articles on energy management in the PPI. The perception of energy management in the PPI seems to be dominated by the understanding that it can mostly be achieved through technological improvements aiming to improve energy efficiency. The main driver of energy management was shown to be economic conditions: high and unstable energy prices, followed by drivers such as the need to remain internationally competitive, collaboration and energy management systems. Meanwhile, examples of the most important barriers are technical risks, lack of access to capital, lack of time and other priorities, and slim organization. The success factors for enhancing drivers and overcoming barriers were continuous energy accounting, energy-related collaboration, energy-efficiency programmes, and benchmarking. Altogether, success factors for energy management for improved energy efficiency could be summarized in the 4M framework—the “4M for energy efficiency”: mind, measure, monitor, and manage—that could be used as the energy management memory-tool that could lead to improved energy efficiency in other sectors as well.

Keywords: energy management; energy efficiency; pulp and paper industry; barriers; drivers; ISO 50001; success factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1851/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1851/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1851-:d:150334

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().