Over thirty companies piloting Multiple Benefits training and toolkit despite Covid-19.

(28 May 2020) Project partners testing new Multiple Benefits training and toolkit across seven European countries to identify how energy saving actions contribute to competitive advantage

Despite Covid-19-related challenges, partners in the EU-funded Multiple Benefits project are forging ahead with training and pilot projects.



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More than 30 industrial and commercial building management companies across seven European countries – Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Switzerland – will receive training and collaborate with project partners to test the Multiple Benefits toolkit in pilot projects this year.

The newly launched training platform and toolkit, complete with methods, tools, and templates to identify multiple benefits, quantify the strategic and financial impacts of energy savings actions, and communicate project proposals to upper management, will help partners and companies identify and propose the energy-saving actions that contribute most to core business.

The Multiple Benefits approach can be applied by all types of companies and organisations and to all types of energy savings actions. The toolkit helps guide companies through a five-step process to identify and determine the impact of a process change, building-related improvement, or other energy saving measure to the competitive advantage or overall mission of the company (expressed in terms of value proposition, cost reduction, and risk reduction). The process concludes with the completion of a financial analysis and preparation of the project business case. The toolkit even includes a communications template that assists Energy Managers in tailoring the proposal to the interests of upper management.

What are the desired outcomes of pilots?

Through 2020, project partners will complete pilots, evaluate the efficacy of the approach and tools, and publish the outcomes.

The ambition is that the pilot companies will:

  • gain new insights into how energy saving actions contribute to competitiveness (e.g., through gains in productivity, employee health, reduced material use/waste, climate risk reduction and other benefits)
  • invest in the identified energy saving action(s), and
  • integrate the approach into their business practice(s) going forward.

The results will also contribute to a structured evidence base and case studies, which will provide companies and Energy Managers with a more robust basis for determining how energy efficiency measures contribute to competitiveness.

With these foundations, the intention is to create a virtual cycle: more companies test the approach, contribute to the evidence base, and help improve the toolkit. This stimulates greater private investment in energy efficiency, which contributes to more competitive companies and accelerates the clean energy transition.

Next steps

Over the coming months project partners will develop and publish additional case studies, project examples and add to the growing evidence base.

After the pilot period, the toolkit software will be published at the beginning of 2021.

Interested organisations should check the Multiple Benefits Library periodically for new updates.

Sign up for the mailing list to stay updated, or contact the Project Coordinator, Dr. Clemens Rohde with Fraunhofer ISI with questions (m-benefits@isi.fraunhofer.de).