In 2021, the Institute for Sustainable Development (INE) at ZHAW carried out a study on the barriers and drivers for the decarbonization of process energy in the Swiss manufacturing sector.
In this internally funded study, the aim was to identifying the needs and pain points of manufacturing firms concerning the implementation of energy efficiency measures, fuel switching, or product adaptation, in order to suggest measures to address those.
In Summer and Fall 2021, interviews were conducted with managers in 17 companies, focusing on the internal and external factors influencing their energy related decision-making.
It was found that successful strategies to promote industrial decarbonization should address firm-internal and external barriers simultaneously.
The findings will be described in an upcoming paper.
In the future, there are plans to build on these insights to develop a periodically recurring survey aiming at monitoring the progress of decarbonization in the Swiss manufacturing sector and continuously identifying the challenges arising in the process.
