An energy management framework tailor-made for SMEs: Case study of a German car company

Energy management enables small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to mitigate their collectively high environmental impact while generating financial savings. Surprisingly, implementation rates remain low. Academia argues that this energy efficiency gap is due to SMEs' resource constraints and a lack of managerial awareness regarding energy-related patterns. In order to address these constraints, this article presents a six-step energy management framework tailor-made for SMEs. Therefore, this framework specifically focuses on the measurement and visualization of real-time energy flows to create managerial awareness. Moreover, the framework utilizes internal human capabilities and minimizes resource-intensive management procedures to enable an implementation which is less resource-demanding than existing approaches. Following this framework, companies continuously apply steps of staff sensitization, energy measurement, analyses, optimization, reflection and strategy alignment. Empirically, this framework was developed using an action research approach in a German SME, where energy and carbon saving potentials of 37% were realized. The case study highlights how increased managerial awareness triggers the implementation of energy efficiency practices.