Driving Forces for Industrial Energy Efficiency Within SMEs: Empirical Evidences from the Italian Manufacturing Sector

The reduction by 20% of primary energy consumption represents the still remaining objective that does not seem to be achieved through the adoption of current European policies. For increasing energy efficiency, a strong contribution could come from the industrial sector, responsible of a considerable share of the consumption. Several studies investigated the barriers to industrial energy efficiency, as emerged from recent studies, but very few on the most effective means (drivers) to promote the adoption of those technologies. In this respect, Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) are quite completely overlooked although resulting extremely interesting for their overall energy consumption and their concurrent low level of energy-efficient measures adoption. Starting from a literature review on the drivers to industrial energy efficiency, the paper proposes an empirical investigation within 71 Italian manufacturing SMEs, through a multiple case study approach, adopting semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The research has highlighted of course the importance of allowances or public financing for the interventions, but also the importance of external pressures as increase of energy prices, introduction or increase of fees on both the resources consumed and on pollutant emissions. Moreover, enterprises look favourably to energy-efficient technologies able to obtain long-term benefits, thus showing the willingness to have radical solutions able to increase their long-term competitiveness. Other drivers considered as strategic for increasing energy efficiency are the presence in the company of people with great ambition and entrepreneurial mind and the management sensitivity, particularly crucial for SMEs in which the decision chain for making investments is quite short. The analysis has showed the importance to have decision-makers able to consider energy-efficient technologies from a holistic point view, thus evaluating the investments considering their sustainability and not only from a mere economic point of view. With respect to this, future energy policies should be devoted in pointing out clearly the direct and indirect benefits coming from the application of energy-efficient technologies. Moreover, adequate attention should be put by policy-makers to promote energy efficiency within SMEs’ managers, responsible of the decisions on energy-efficient technologies investments.