Website: www.ems-textile.net

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Summary

The EMS-TEXTILE project aims to promote energy management practices mainly to the textile industries of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Bulgaria. The proposed energy management practices are based on previous experience from successful environmental and energy management applications throughout the world. Through collaborative processes between project partners and potential end users, energy audit and benchmarking tools and energy management supportive publications are developed and disseminated. Supportive activities of the project include the creation of a multinational experience exchange network, the institution of Help-Line desks, the elaboration of training seminars and pilot implementations. Dissemination activities include the organisation of informative workshops, the publication of articles, the distribution of leaflets and the presentation of the project results at national and EU events. In general EMS-Textile provides the necessary tools and elaborates combined actions for their implementation. All deliverables, activities, contact details and news of the project are available on the project website (see above).

The project's total budget was 600.000 € and was co-financed (50%) by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme (Contract number: EIE/04/113/S07.38648).

Results

• Development of an energy audit methodology and relevant tools, customized on the textile sector.
• Operation of Textile Energy Efficiency Offices at four participating countries that will continue providing technical consulting support to the textile enterprises even after the project's completion.
• Promotion of the concept of energy saving and management at a wide range of textile industries and interested parties.
• Development of Energy Management Standard, based on internationally accepted Standards i.e. ISO 14001:2004 - EMAS Regulation, applicable to all enterprises.
• Implementation of Energy management systems at textile companies, one at each participating country, adopting the methodologies, techniques and measures proposed - developed within the current project.
• Information of key executives of industrial enterprises about the practices and benefits of good energy management. Many of them gained extensive knowledge on the issue aiming to implement an important part of the recommended practices to their companies.

Lessons learned and repeatability

After the completion of the EMS-Textile project, the conclusions that derive from its realization can be summarized as follows:

• Many industries in European Union have already undertaken energy efficiency investments, but the improvement of energy management is not among their priorities in many cases because they are not aware of its benefits and practices.
• The benchmarking research conducted at the participating countries of the EMS-Textile project showed that energy performance was similar in Greek, Spanish and Portuguese enterprises, while Bulgarian companies presented lower performance due to the use of older equipment and production techniques.
• Real management commitment is the key for the successful implementation of energy management. It is expressed via the allocation of adequate financial and human resources and not just by written policies.
• Many textile companies are reluctant to implement energy management because their financial situation has worsened view of competition from low cost Asian rivals.
• In countries where some minimum energy management practices were enforced by law (Portugal) results were positive, but this option should be used wisely in order not to create unnecessary burdens on companies. A lot of companies are willing to elaborate energy conservation or renewable energy investments when respective grants exist. Financial incentives and Third Party Financing are additional options that can be used in combination with other supportive measures. Experience from the funding of energy efficiency and RES investments is very positive.
• It seems that legislation can contribute to the achievement of energy efficiency. Approaches like the SEVESO directive, which forces companies above certain thresholds to implement safety management practices, or other laws that force certain chemical companies to implement environmental management, can be a solution. In our case companies above certain annual energy consumption could be forced to implement energy management.
• The application of energy management in a company has additional indirect benefits, such as improvement of management and regulatory compliance, increased internal communication and greater staff involvement, application of good practices in everyday life, together with an improved corporate social profile and relations with public authorities and other stakeholders
• Various energy management schemes have been implemented in Europe for decades. Some of them focus on energy audits, others on monitoring and targeting, and others on personnel training and sensitization.
• More integrated approaches follow the Plan - Do - Check - Act cycle and are quite similar to ISO 14001. Currently the most popular and promising trend is energy performance benchmarking, which presents difficulties due to the lack of precise, analytical and valid data.
• Although the average 1.5% of annual energy conservation, due to good energy management, may appear small, nevertheless it can climb up to an accumulative conservation of about 15%, after 10 years of continuous implementation. Furthermore clear task assignment, good internal communication, personnel involvement and close energy use monitoring, improve significantly the whole management of a company. These issues have already been outlined during the EMS-Textile project and in its informative activities.
• The fluctuating high fuel prices and global warming are problems that indicate the significance of Energy Conservation and Management. However, the intensive economic competition and the lack of financial and human resources in many companies, make it more difficult. In this controversial environment, all key actors and stakeholders should try to contribute as much as they can in energy efficiency. Now the need of cooperation between EU and state officials, energy specialized companies and industrial enterprises, appears more important than ever.