1. EMAK workshop

The first EMAK Workshop was held in January 26-27, 2010 in Paris.  The workshop featured 15 presentations from 11 countries/institutions (China, Japan, Germany, India, Australia, Mexico, USA, Korea, South Africa and UK) and was attended by over 60 attendees from 25 countries.

2.  EMAK presentations and debate

The presentations provided insights into the energy management institutions and regulatory systems of various countries, and provided a learning experience for all participants with active discussions

Please refer to http://sites.google.com/site/emakbiz/home/presentations for the presentations.

Below are some of the key points of debate:

• The importance of energy management in order to improve energy efficiency in industry was underlined by all.
• Measurement was the first step to energy management.
• Design of energy management systems varied across countries:

-       Mandatory reporting systems (Japan, India, Korea), voluntary systems (Germany) or hybrid systems (companies are required to report potential energy savings (Australia), companies’ reporting is linked to tax benefits (UK))

-       Mandatory hiring of energy managers (Japan, India, China, Korea), or no such obligations (US etc)

-       Certification through exams (Japan, India) vs no certification systems

• Qualification of energy managers (knowledge of energy management (technical), financing (management), etc.)
• Knowledge on energy management could be shared through various schemes (organising companies into groups (Ekoprofit of Germany), energy auditors, various toolkits (US), award systems (Japan), case studies (India, Japan))
• Focusing energy management projects within broader energy or environmental management frameworks to encourage a systems approach
• Need for national certification schemes and possible international certification

(most participants considered it difficult to have a unified international certification while some considered it could be helpful)

• Being sensitive to the complexity of multiple levels of governance within decision-making systems
• Need to empower energy managers in the organisation: regulatory framework could support the role of energy managers in the organization

3.  A role for EMAK

The possible role for EMAK which emerged from the discussions were as follows:

• develop a network of networks (link policy makers with energy management practitioners, link policy makers with policy makers, and link practitioners with practitioners)
• provide a forum for broad information exchange through many different means (internet (portal site, webinars), regular meetings, pamphlets and tools)
• engage leaders of corporations and policy makers in energy efficiency
• assist with the creation of energy efficiency certification systems, and in the training of energy managers
• translate material to appropriate contexts and languages

4. Survey results during the workshop

 A quick survey of what future EMAK workshops should focus on was taken and 39 senior energy management experts (21 government, 5 private sector, 6 research, 7 other) preferred EMAK to focus on

• case studies on best practice (30)
• broad information sharing (21)
• exchange programs (15)
• training (13)
• roundtables (5)

...by having these themes for the next two workshops

• certification and standards (20)
• using virtual systems creatively for training and information provision (17)
• training approaches for different groups (15)
• developing exchange programs (11)
• building new networks (8)

Other relevant comments

• use existing systems where possible
• consult the energy managers to find what they need from EMAK
• share assessment tools
• a focus on financing energy efficiency activities would be good
• case studies of successful and failing networks
• ensure non-government representation