Accelerating Carbon Transition through Awareness and Quantification of Non-Energy Benefits of Energy Efficiency (ACTIVATE)

Project Description

Non-energy benefits (NEBs) are the benefits (other than energy cost savings) accrued from the investment done for improving energy efficiency of any building or establishment. These investments with the aim of EEI can be attributed with additional NEBs, which usually remain unnoticed. To make an energy efficiency improvement investment attractive from the perspective of decision makers a broader set of benefits including operational improvements and brand imaging needs to be considered. Increasing awareness and improving knowledge about NEBs of energy efficiency measures in buildings will remove the psychological barrier and act as a potential mechanism to accelerate the uptake of EEI in industry and buildings. Quantification of these unnoticed and ignored NEBs will improve the cost benefit analysis of EEI and the calculated payback period of each of energy efficiency measures will be reduced. A holistic approach to cost benefit analysis demonstrating a shorter payback period has the potential to change the perception of decision makers within businesses and will lead to uptake of investments to EEIs. During the ACTIVATE project a quantification methodology will be developed and tested to support the business/SMEs to estimate the monetary savings achieved through the NEBs as byproduct of EEIs and energy cost savings.