Project description
A big boost for small business energy audits
From a brief site inspection to an in-depth analysis of energy usage, energy audits help companies achieve cost-effective energy savings. But Europe’s SMEs, which represent a huge energy saving potential, are not obliged to undergo energy audits. Also, small business owners lack the information and resources to invest in energy efficiency. The EU-funded INNOVEAS project aims to reverse this trend and increase energy audit uptake among SMEs. It will start by building capacity in the field of energy auditing and related energy saving measures in SMEs. The goal is to promote an energy culture (motivations, behaviour change, mitigation of perceived risks and barriers) to encourage SMEs to undergo energy audits and implement the recommended energy-saving measures.
Objective
The INNOVEAS project is an initiative promoted by 10 partners, from 6 EU countries, to build and deliver a capacity building programme, aiming at addressing the major non-technical barriers that most often hamper the adoption the energy auditing practice, in particular among those actors, such as SMEs where such audits are not required by law. The ultimate goal is to consolidate a structured, permanent and expandable offer to help develop continuous self-sustainable services to raise awareness and build capacity in the field of energy auditing and related energy saving measures in SMEs.
The project therefore aims at designing and deploying staff trainings and capacity building programmes to enhance corporate policy towards energy efficiency, energy culture (motivations, behaviour change, mitigation of perceived risks and barriers) and sustainable supply-chain initiatives. It therefore intends to: i) Advanced analysis of behavioural barriers to energy audits, to identify and analyse the enabling conditions and non-technical barriers hindering the adoption of energy auditing practice; ii) Delivery of self-sustainable capacity building programmes, in order to systematise awareness raising procedures to overcome the psychological and organisational barriers to energy audits in SMEs, deliver a training offer to SMEs and formulate a capacity building programme targeting stakeholders such as intermediaries, policy makers and financing institutes; iii) Create an institutional structure to sustain the project’s objectives and results and lay the basis for the creation and consolidation of a pan-European network of enablers likely to support in the coming years the growth and expansion of the training offer to on energy efficiency for European business.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
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Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
40127 Bologna
Italy