Improving energy and climate indicators for the steel industry – the case of Sweden

•New energy and CO2 efficiency indices adjust for structural shifts.•Energy and CO2 efficiency indices based on economic data capture value of products.•The approaches can help monitoring improvements towards greener production.•Economic data is bound by confidentiality – new data handling approaches needed.

Energy and climate indicators are required for monitoring and controlling the effectiveness of regional as well as national initiatives towards increasing energy efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Indicators are also needed for monitoring measures implemented within companies. Recent studies show that traditional energy efficiency indicators do not capture product differentiation or value creation in the steel industry, while observed trends capture structural shifts instead. In this study, methods combining physical and techno-economic perspectives on energy and CO2 efficiency are proposed for alleviating these problems. The methods were evaluated using data from three Swedish steel producers. The results compensate for structural shifts when focused on physical production. When focused on economic production, the methods represent the value creation of the companies more strongly than traditional indicators. The proposed methods may be useful complements to traditional indicators for monitoring energy and CO2 efficiency. However, the trends show strong links with the economic climate, which may reduce companies’ possibilities of using the indicators for monitoring their own performance. The study confirms the high complexity in monitoring energy and CO2 efficiency within steel companies focused on high-value market segments. Further research is required in exploring issues related to data confidentiality, product portfolios and processes represented in the method, influence of external factors, and aggregating indicators at sectoral level.