Arbejdsrapport fra Miljøstyrelsen, 3/2005 – Energieffektivitet i miljøgodkendelser

Energy Efficiency in Environmental Approvals

Summary and conclusions

The project has investigated a series of possibilities for improving synergies between energy management systems, environmental management systems and environmental approvals/control, with the objective to improve the options for operating facilities in a more energy-efficient manner.

The project was implemented in the period 2002-2003, which means that new rules on consumer payment, differentiated inspection and the new approval order are not incorporated in the project.

The focus point has been four case industries, which are all covered by EU's IPPC Directive and participate in the Energy Agency's energy agreement programme. Initially, individual meetings were held with the industries, the environmental authorities or the Energy Agency respectively. Then communal meetings were held with the industry in question, its environmental authority and the Energy Agency. Discussions, ideas and wishes from these meetings form the basis of the report.

Results have been split into four themes:

Theme 1: Dialogue, cooperation and coordination.
Theme 2: Management systems.
Theme 3: Capacity building.
Theme 4: Information flows.

In Theme 1: "Dialogue, cooperation and coordination" the following possibilities were identified:

The environmental authorities can use the Energy Agency as professional sparring partner in energy issues;
The Energy Agency could automatically inform the relevant environmental authority when an industry enters or renews an energy agreement;
The Energy Agency could elaborate guideline material on best available technology within energy;
The Environmental Protection Agency could to a higher extent guide environmental authorities in how far they can go in setting demands in the energy field;
The industries could to a higher extent inform environmental authorities about their management systems within environment and energy.

In Theme 2: " Management systems" the following possibilities were among other identified:

The industries could invite the environmental authorities to participate when certification bodies carry out external audits at their facility;
The Energy Agency could inform the public of which industries have energy agreements by publishing a list on the Internet.

In Theme 3: "Capacity building" the following possibilities were among other identified:

Capacity can be built on cases where the environmental authority and the Energy Agency cooperate on a particular industry, and in this way build up concrete experience in how and where cooperation can take place.;
The environmental staff in the environmental authorities could be trained in energy savings and energy management measures;
Thematic seminars could be held for industries regarding energy saving and energy management measures.

In Theme 4: "Information flow" the following possibilities were among other identified:

On the portal www.virk.dk it is possible for energy agreement industries to report to the Energy Agency. A similar possibility should be considered in the field of environment, so that self-control can be reported via the Internet;
A correspondence could be created between the various reportings in the fields of energy and environment;
The industries and authorities could invite each other to information meetings in order to ensure mutual understanding of each other's work conditions.

Under each of the four themes it is also described which barriers exist against an optimal utilisation of the possibilities.

Conclusions

The project has been based on four case industries, which are covered both by EU's IPPC Directive and participate in the Energy Agency's energy agreement programme. Individual meetings are held with the industries, their environmental authority and the Energy Agency, followed by communal meetings between the three parties. The meetings took place in 2002 and 2003.

The four industries, the three environmental authorities and the Energy Agency contributed to the project with many constructive ideas and recommendations. The results reflect a wish for increased cooperation between the industries on one side and the environmental authorities and Energy Agency on the other side. Rambøll and Preben Buhl Environment and Energy Management assess that the results in general can be of use in all types of industries with major environment and energy issues.

When asked to describe their cooperation within energy and environment, it could not be avoided that the parties entered a discussion on cooperation policies in general. This is only natural, and many of the “rules of the game” and suggestions for improvement in the cooperation are therefore of a more general nature, although they are in this connection referring to the energy and environment cooperation.

The results of this project are thus based on concrete relations between the players in the four cases. We, the project implementers, have merely been catalysts with the role to extract experiences, suggestions and ideas from the concrete players.

This is therefore not a statistical quantitative analysis either, which is representative for a broad range of Danish companies. This is a qualitative analysis concentrated around four industries, from that segment of industries that are both IPPC industries and have an energy agreement with the Energy Agency. Only a few hundred exist of this type in Denmark. When they have still been the attention of this project it is because they have through several years gathered experience from both energy agreements and environmental approvals. That is exactly why they have had a special basis for assessing possible synergies in connection with authority work in the field of energy and environment.

The project has exposed a series of possibilities for increased correlation between energy management systems, environmental management systems and environmental approvals. However, it has turned out that the project cannot identify any conclusions, possibilities and barriers that are unique for energy management and environmental management in interaction with environmental approvals. The project shows that it requires an extra effort to coordinate the authority tasks across the regulatory areas as well as an increased dialogue, in order to benefit from the voluntary environmental management systems in connection with approval and inspection of companies.