Raising awareness about the importance of energy efficiency projects in sector of small and medium enterprises
- Report based on the results of the roundtable discussion held for EBRD BAS Program, Serbia -
Prepared by:
EBRD’s Business Advisory Services in Serbia conducted and funded qualitative research in cooperation with CEDEF and MASMI in December 2012.
December 2012, Belgrade
Goals, objectives and project methodology Main goal of the project is to raise awareness about the importance of energy efficiency projects in the sector of small and medium enterprises, and sources of consulting and financial assistance, by discussion between representatives of small and medium enterprises, local consultants, relevant financial institutions and business associations. Objectives and project methodology MASMI, in cooperation with EBRD BAS Program and CEDEF teams, had prepared the content (topics for discussion), organized and moderated the discussion of the roundtable in which representatives of small and medium enterprises (SME), local consultants with experience in energy efficiency (EE) projects, banks with credit lines for EE projects, WeBSEFF and Chamber of commerce participated.
Specific obligations for realization of the roundtable included: 1. Preparing the discussion topics in cooperation with EBRD BAS and CEDEF teams. 2. Roundtable moderation included the group discussion between 8 SME, 4 consultants, 3 bank and 1 WeBSEFF representatives. Representatives of CEDEF and EBRD teams also gave their contribution to the discussion, as well as the representative of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia Prof. Aleksandar Gračanac. Discussion was led by a moderator from the agency for market research MASMI. Roundtable was held in Belgrade on December 4 2012, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Foreword was held by Bojana Vukosavljević, the director of EBRD BAS Program for Serbia. Jovanka ArsićKarišić, president of CEDEF steering committee and Prof. Aleksandar Gračanac, representing the Chamber of Commerce, and the secretary of the association of small and medium enterprises, addressed the participants afterwards. After the introduction the roundtable discussion commenced. It lasted 3 hours in total (with a lunch break after first hour and a half). At the end of group discussion all participants of the roundtable attended the presentation of Gordana Vasiljević, WeBSEFF representative, that presented WeBSEFF project with case example, and a short announcement of the Roundtable results presentation on CEDEF conferences. 3. Preparation of the roundtable findings report.
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Content
Content..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3 Key findings……………...…………………..………………………………………………………………………………..
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Results..……………………...…………………………………………………………………………..………….………….
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Perception of EE importance and awareness about EE measures in SME sector……..…..….…………………………………………..…………….…………………………………….…
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A view on the importance of advancing energy efficiency in SME sector.………………………………………………………………………………..……………………
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Awareness of the energy efficiency projects in SME sector……………….
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Familiarity with the legislation.……….…..……………………………………..……………
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Ways of improving energy efficiency and willingness to hire advisory assistance..
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Implemented measures and perception of benefits….……………………………..
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Advisory assistance……………………….…………………..…………….………………………
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Energy efficiency equipment and material manufacturers as a source of advisory assistance…………………………………………………………………………………..
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Consultants as a source of advisory assistance…………………….……..……………
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Familiarity of the sources of financial assistance for improving energy efficiency in SME sector.....................................................................................................
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Key barriers of SME towards implementing projects of improving energy efficiency and ways to overcome them………………….……………………………………………. 15 ANNEX I – Roundtable discussion guide
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ANNEX II – List of roundtable participants
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ANNEX III – Photographs from the roundtable event
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Key findings Perception of importance and awareness concerning energy efficiency in SME sector The level of awareness about the importance of improving energy efficiency in the sector of small and medium enterprises is perceived as very low. Nevertheless, it is considered that the awareness of the importance of this issue is rising. For consultants and financial institutions this change is apparent in increased interest for energy efficiency projects. Raising awareness about the financial benefits that rational use of energy brings to the enterprises is essential, especially in the times of crisis when cutting all possible costs is an imperative. In addition to the overall lack of awareness of the importance of energy efficiency, another problem is lack of information the companies get about improving EE and the ways of financing it. Small and medium enterprises do not have enough information about legal regulation in the field of energy efficiency, except in cases where the company’s activity is related to this part of legislature. For consultants and companies that tried to improve its energy efficiency, unenforced law and unregulated administration, on which these kinds of projects rely on, proved to be significant obstacles.
Ways of improving energy efficiency: Different measures of increasing energy efficiency are implemented or planned in small and medium enterprises. Experiences of the companies and consultants that worked on those projects show that multiple benefits were achieved. Firstly, the consumption of energy is significantly decreased, as seen in lower monthly bills and indirectly by the increase in market competitiveness for manufacturing companies (as lower energy consumption costs decrease final products price). Also, improving energy efficiency brings ecological benefits, which is perceived to be stimulating for some companies. Many businesses are not aware how quickly this investment can repay itself - often around 3 years and sometimes even less. Precisely this information is perceived to be essential for stimulating companies to implement energy efficiency projects.
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Willingness to hire advisory assistance: Due to their size, SME in Serbia rarely have professionals capable to deal with the issues of improving company’s energy efficiency. It is considered that the advisory help in this area is much needed (both for legislation and administration, and on technical solutions and financing issues). In the SME sector there is no clear idea where to find advisory assistance. Energy efficiency equipment and material manufacturers as well as consultant firms are relatively familiar sources of information. On the other hand, advisory help from the government institutions is seldom expected. Equipment and material manufacturers are perceived as accessible and competent source of advisory assistance. Still, many emphasize that there is also certain mistrust because of the primary interest of the manufacturers to sell their own material and equipment. While some point to the need of having objective reports made by independent authorities in the field of energetic, that would be available to the companies who need advisory assistance, others believe that demonstrating the advantages of the offered solutions on their own example wakes interest and builds customers’ trust. Based on the opinion of the roundtable participants, consideration and affinity towards using consultant favors among SME is at a very low level. Lack of awareness of consulting services, perception of high price, problems in finding the adequate consultant and insufficient availability of consulting services outside of Belgrade are perceived to be most important barriers towards using consulting services in the SME sector. As using consulting services is still at the early stage in Serbia and SME owners are not yet familiar with this concept, owners usually rely on “word of mouth” as a way to find a consultant. References feature as an important criteria when evaluating the suitability of a consultant. Nevertheless, in some cases references also proved to be misleading, because the number of references can sometimes be inversely proportional to the quality of service. Due to the high possibility of wrong quality assessment and a high price of consulting services, hiring consultants is perceived as risky.
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Knowing the sources of financial assistance for improving energy efficiency in SME sector Roundtable participants pointed out that small and medium enterprises are often implementing EE projects with personal resources or with commercial bank loans, while in fact being unaware of the various possibilities for obtaining financial assistance for these kinds of projects. It is important to the consultants that they are informed about as many sources of financing as possible, because having appropriate financial assistance significantly increases the willingness of companies to use consulting services. The government is criticized due to its lack of effort in developing financing sources for energy efficiency projects. It is proposed to rationalize energy spending on a state level and then use those saved funds to financially help EE projects.
Key barriers of SME towards energy efficiency projects and ways to overcome them 1. According to the roundtable participants, lack of awareness of SME about multiple benefits of energy efficiency projects and the value of the initial investment are the main barriers that stand on the way of implementing them more often. It is known that SMEs often work in difficult circumstances, so they don’t even think of implementing EE projects – companies hold that it is very risky to invest large funds, and don’t consider long-term project profitability. Most important ways for overcoming these barriers are: – Conducting extensive informing campaign for companies about the possibilities of applying for financial assistance. Consultants’ role is to provide information about possible sources of financing and, based on the specifics of each request, help to determine the most cost-effective source, and make the fundraising procedure easier. –
It is important to struggle against the perception of risk of those investments by informing the companies about the time needed for investment to pay itself off and the financial gain they can expect by implementing it.
2. Doubts in the consultants’ competence exist because the lack of information and experience with these services in the SME sector. The owners of SME have troubles finding the right consultant. It was suggested to improve the information access and to evaluate the consultants via certification, choice by tender or system of recommendations from the consultants’ previous clients.
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3. State administration and problems with application of laws that regulate the field of energy efficiency complicate the process of applying for financial assistance, and in that way further discourage the interest in EE projects and make finding clients harder for consultants. Increasing media attention for this issue is seen as a good way to influence the government. 4. Large amounts of financial assistance imply demanding and lengthy procedures, which can discourage some companies from applying due to the lack of time and resources. Hiring a consultant who knows the procedures will save significant amount of time with the documentation collection process. 5. As an effect of implementing EE project and the change to the work routine, opposition among company’s workers could emerge because of the fear for personal position. Consultant should facilitate the education of workers about the importance of EE for the company, so they could develop the awareness about this issue and change the attitude towards work. The other approach is to financially sanction undesirable behavior.
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Results Perception of EE importance and awareness about EE measures in SME sector. A view on the importance of advancing energy efficiency in SME sector Roundtable participants rated the general level of awareness of rational energy consumption in our country as very low – among small and medium enterprises and among citizens of Serbia („As a technician, I am convinced in a catastrophic state of energy consumption – public, not just businesses, should be informed about the need for saving energy.“). It is perceived that the reason for it is the fact that many SME are struggling to remain on the market, and that for them the energy saving remains a low priority. It is also considered that the state and the media are not making enough effort to inform the public about the importance of rational energy consumption („The implementation of the energy passports has little or no media coverage, and that which has no media coverage – is like it never happened!“). Nevertheless, the roundtable concluded that the interest in this subject exists, even somewhat rising. The experiences of the bank representatives confirm this, as well as the experiences of the consultants and manufacturers of materials and equipment for EE aggrandizement („My experience is that there is a growing number of clients interested to finance energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy – in the last year there were at least 2 credit requests per week!“, „The will exists, people are aware that they could save by using pellet.”). This is the case mainly because the financial benefits of implementing EE are more evident, especially in the time of crisis when saving on each and every cost is a priority (“I think that now, in these times of crisis, a lot of businesses, factories and companies are finding ways how to save.”).
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Awareness of the energy efficiency projects in SME sector Along with the low level of awareness of the importance of EE, there is a problem with lack of awareness of the professional staff in companies about EE measures („I had a case with a company that has 10 electrical engineers and that had 5 months of excess power consumption, which added to a 5000 EUR per year. The competence of the staff is not the issue, it’s their lack of awareness of rational spending.“). Education about this subject is also important to the workers who install the building materials („The problem is educating the workers who install the materials – awareness of our people and the acceptance of new things is catastrophic – you buy the best Ceresit materials, but if someone incompetent installs it you will get bad results.“). Low price of electricity is sometimes perceived as linked with the lack of awareness and irrational spending („As long as the price of electricity is low, there will be no energy efficiency!“). On the other hand, the electricity is considered to be a large item in the budget precisely because of the irrational spending („The sole price of kilowatt is low, but we use very expensive electricity in higher zones because we have a bad attitude towards the expenditure.“) Familiarity with the legislation While the companies are somewhat familiar with the legislation concerning a narrow area of their business („I follow only what is most closely related to my work.“), legislation related to the EE is, in most cases, unknown to SME in Serbia. For consultants and businesses that tried to advance their EE, legislation is often perceived as an obstacle („The problem is that we don’t have the support of the government – we talk about the legislation of EE for 10 years now, the law is enacted, but the sublegal acts are not.“, „Law doesn’t regulate the projects which are based on using sub terrain waters for heating and cooling – that’s why the people gave up and the projects weren’t implemented.”). It is highlighted, that for the situation to improve in this area, the appropriate legislation should be passed as soon as possible - that would secure benefits for enterprises implementing EE measures and raise fines for those who do not comply with the law.
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Ways of improving energy efficiency and willingness to hire advisory assistance EE measures and perception of benefits Various measures of improving energy efficiency are, or are to be, implemented in small and medium enterprises – boiler replacement, installation of heat pumps (that use sub terrain waters), isolation, installation of more efficient lighting system, using solar heat power. Experiences of companies and consultants that worked on these kinds of projects show that the achieved benefits are many: significant decrease in energy consumption, apparent in lower monthly bills („I expect that the heating costs will fall to 15% for the entire season.”, „Boiler went from 12 to 5 tons of steam consumption after a year!“). Further on, there are indirect gains for manufacturing companies through increase in market competitiveness, due to the effect that lower energy consumption costs have on the price of final products („I think that today, in any kind of manufacturing and final product price, the biggest saves can be made by rational consumption of energy.“, „You can save by manufacturing – you can lower the cost per product unit by having higher capacity.“). Also, the ecological component is perceived to be stimulating for some companies („Besides saving on heat, the emission of carbon dioxide would drop by 97%!“, „Cleaner production!“). It is considered that many businesses are not aware how quickly this investment can repay itself – often around 3 years, and sometimes even less.
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Advisory assistance The general view is that small and medium enterprises in Serbia do need advisory assistance in the area of improving EE, both on legislation and administration, and on technical solutions and financing issues. Due to their size, SME rarely have professionals capable to deal with the issues of improving energy efficiency and financing (bigger enterprises, on the other hand, prepare the majority of projects by themselves – both financial and technical sections). In the SME sector there is no clear idea where to find advisory assistance, the sources of it are mainly perceived as unfamiliar or inaccessible. Known sources of information are manufacturers of EE equipment and consultant agencies, while public institutions are not counted on for information („Government counseling help exist in theory, but not in practice – Regional agency for energy development should be doing this job, but this is not the case because of the practice of political employment that yields disinterested workers.“). They also rarely perceive international and nongovernmental organizations as sources of information. Business associations are seen as a way to get to the information about advisory assistance („I would ask the Association of Business Women on whom to turn to.“).
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Energy efficiency equipment and material manufacturers as a source of advisory assistance Equipment manufacturers are perceived as accessible and competent source of information („If I wanted to improve my lighting system, I would turn to the leader company in that field, for heat pumps to some of the renowned manufacturers, and I would leave everything to their project teams.”). Still, many emphasize that there is also a certain mistrust because of the primary interest of the manufacturers to sell their own material and equipment (“We would never rely on equipment manufacturer’s data because they will always present their equipment as the most efficient – I would prefer the advice from independent experts and consultants.”). Manufacturers perceive this „justifiable mistrust“ as a major problem that represents an obstacle for more successful communication and cooperation with clients („When we inform our clients about the profitability of our solution we are playing both the role of a manufacturer and a consultant, as someone who is persuading the client – so the client may not trust us, and for a reason!“). As a way to overcome this mistrust, some point to the need of having reports made by the independent authorities in the field of energetic, that would be available to the companies („It would help if our independent institutions would issue tables with spending reviews and cost-effectiveness of energy use at least twice a year...similar table was done two years ago by the Energy agency, but that was it.”). On the other hand, some of the manufacturers decide to use their own example to demonstrate the advantages of the offered solutions, wake the interest and build the customers’ trust (“We, as a firm, tried to set an example to ourselves and to others, we built the energy efficient business object so that we could demonstrate that the thing is useful and usable.”).
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Consultants as a source of advisory assistance Based on the opinion of the roundtable participants, consideration and affinity towards using consultant favors among SME’s is at a very low level. Lack of awareness of consulting services, perception of high price, problems in finding the adequate consultant and insufficient availability of consulting services outside of Belgrade are perceived to be most important barriers towards using consulting services in the SME sector. Consideration of the use of consulting services in SME sector is on the low level, because often businesses don’t have enough information about consultants and their services. Companies outside of Belgrade consider the use of consulting services even less available because they believe that the consultants mainly work in Belgrade („Best groups of professional consultants are abroad and in Belgrade...and we are in Ćuprija.“, „Where can you find consultant in Trgovište?!?“). Significant number of companies dismisses the idea because they perceive consulting services prices as too high. Consultants perceive the price as the strongest barrier, for their experience shows that companies gladly use consulting services and follow received instructions when they get financial assistance for it („When USAID was financing, 100 food industry companies used consulting service, no one refused!“). Due to the lack of known information sources about consultants, SME usually inform themselves through business partners and acquaintances and hire them through recommendations. Businesses perceive these kinds of services as a rather unknown novelty so they stay uncertain about real indicators of consultants’ quality. Beside recommendations, when evaluating the suitability of a consultant, references feature as an important criteria. Nevertheless, in some cases references also proved to be misleading („In the end I concluded that the longer the reference list, the consultant is more questionable, how did he manage to participate in that many projects?“). High possibility of wrong assessment of the consultants’ quality in combination with perceived high price of their services makes hiring consultants very risky („They are not sure whether the thing that they paid so much will later have real effects.“, „The company’s policy is that paying for knowledge is not a problem, but I had to pay 3 times until I found the right consultant.“, „There were cases where consultants would offer a „copy-paste“ solution, where even the name of the previous company was not changed!“).
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Knowing the sources of financial assistance for improving energy efficiency in SME sector Roundtable participants pointed out that small and medium enterprises are mainly not aware about the possibilities of obtaining financial assistance for projects of improving energy efficiency. These kinds of projects are financed by personal resources or bank loans, often raised on commercial provisions („We raised loans from the commercial banks.“). Many companies are not aware that they can diversify their financial assistance by getting funds from various sources, which can substantially lower their investment expenses. On the other hand, it is important to the consultants to be informed about as many sources of financing as possible, because having appropriate financial assistance significantly raises the willingness of companies to use consulting services, but also because it determines the project setup („We are sellers of biomass, but we are also consultants, and we always search for a credible source of financing for our buyers – first we used the banks and loans, and then we started using funds of the European bank...“). The government is criticized due to its lack of effort in developing financing sources for energy efficiency projects („You cannot find a single government fund that subsidies anything concerning EE.“). One of the suggestions is to rationalize energy spending on a state level and then use those saved funds for EE projects („Financing the EE should be systemically solved – last winter we imported 300 million Euros worth of electricity, if we had optimized the spending those 300 million could now be in some fund.“).
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Key barriers of SME towards implementing energy efficiency projects and ways to overcome them 1. According to the roundtable participants, the lack of awareness of SME about multiple benefits of implementing projects concerning energy efficiency and the value of the initial investment are the main barriers that stand on the way of implementing them more often. It is known that SME often work in difficult circumstances, so they don’t even think of implementing EE projects – companies hold that it is very risky to invest large funds, and don’t consider longterm project profitability. Initial investment is also an important barrier due to the liquidity issues, generally unfavorable conditions in Serbia, and inability to collect that hamper stable business („Every day more companies inform themselves about these loans, but they postpone projects for better times – liquidity is more important to them!“). Several ways were proposed for overcoming these barriers: – If there were more information about the sources of financial assistance for energy efficiency projects, initial investment would be perceived as less of an obstacle. Financial aid is shown to be a major incentive, even more important than savings projections („If USAID is financing the project, they (company) are willing to do it, if not – no matter how much will they gain by savings, they are not willing.“). Consultants can help overcome this barrier by offering information about sources of financial assistance (based on the specifics of each request, they can evaluate which source is most cost-effective in specific case) and by mediating between client and financial source. – Also, it is important to struggle against the perception of risk of those investments by arguments and by informing the companies about the time needed for investment to pay itself off and the financial gain they can expect by implementing it („If you explain to the companies that the annual saving is near or equal to the loan made for the investment, then there is no reason for them to refuse.“). – Some suggest that the payment of consulting services and materials could be made by savings made after the project implementation („My dream is to install the boiler in Tigar, which they will reimburse through saving – that way they won’t have any investments, that system already exists in the west.“). – Higher availability of advisory services could also be found in establishing consultant firms that would be in charge of tracking energy efficiency of several SME, due to the fact that SME often cannot afford to hire a person responsible for company’s EE.
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2. When the enterprise owners finally decide to hire consultants, they often don’t know how to reach them and, subsequently, how to assess their expertise when they do. Due to the fact that consulting practice is not yet widespread in Serbia, enterprise owners often doubt consultants’ competence. Several ways were suggested on how to affirm the competence and reputation of a consultant in a more certain way: – Certification is seen as one of the ways to ensure consultants’ credibility and to facilitate the selection of consultant competent for specific area. – Choice by tender is a good solution because the tender results are not binding, and the company can get more offers and assess the quality in that way. – System of recommendations the consultants got from past clients (with their contacts) could be more reliable and informative way to assess the quality of consultants than just by reference system. 3. Large amounts of financial assistance imply demanding and lengthy procedures, which can discourage some companies from applying due to the lack of time and resources („The procedure can last for a year, and that’s a very hard journey.“) – One of the ways companies can cope with this problem is to hire a consultant which would help with the documentation collection process. 4. State administration and problems with application of laws that regulate the field of energy efficiency complicate the process of applying for financial assistance also, and in that way further discourage the interest in EE projects („Obtaining permission for building a renewable energy facility is very complicated, especially obtaining the privileged producer status.“). – Increasing media attention for this issue is seen as a good way to influence the government. – Administration should be less bureaucratic („Focus should be on business!“). – Government should make these projects more available („We don’t have as many favorable sources of financing as do other markets.”).
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5. Initiating the energy efficiency project is not a sure sign that the project will live to be implemented and bring benefits to the company. The experience of the consultants shows that strong resistance among workers could appear, primarily because of changing the work routine („You can implement any measure you like, but if a worker pushes the button or unwinds the valve there is no measure that will make any significant effect.“) Consultant can be seen as someone who endangers their positions by highlighting the errors made in the system („They saw my role there as a someone who came to show how they are not doing their jobs well, and that they may get fired because of my analysis.“). While everyone agree that the management commitment is essential for working out the problems with workers and for the positive effects of the project, two ways are suggested for dealing with workers in these situations: – Consultant should facilitate the education of workers about the importance of EE for the company, so they could develop the awareness about this issue and change the attitude toward work. – Using more repressive measures via financial penalties („No, there will be no effect unless he feels it in his wallet.“)
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ANNEX I
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ROUNDTABLE GUIDE
Raising awareness about the importance of energy efficiency projects in sector of small and medium enterprisess
Belgrade, december 2012.
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INTRODUCTION
(5 MIN)
Good day. My name is Tamara and I will be moderating this roundtable. The roundtable is organized by EBRD and it is dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of EE projects, improving energy efficiency in SME and cooperation of company owners with consultants for energy efficiency (EE). You are invited to share your experience and thoughts with us, and among yourself, concerning the development of EE in your companies and using consulting services. The roundtable discussion will take around two and a half hours – as noted in the Agenda. After first hour and a half we will be making lunch break, and then we will continue for one hour more. Refreshments are on the table, please feel free to help yourself. Here sitting with us are representatives of companies that still have not had any experience with improving EE and those who had, consultants who provide assistance in the field of EE and bank representatives who work on the specific line of credit for improving EE in enterprises. This opportunity is precious for exchange of experience. We will see how those who had no opportunity to implement EE measures in their business see things, what the examples of those who did are like, and what does the consultant experience from this field has to say. I will ask some questions that have for a goal to initiate the conversation, but exchange of opinions and dialogue should be also between you. We are here to exchange experiences and opinions and we will try to tackle the existing difficulties in improving EE in your companies. We will, also, try to contribute joint suggestions on how to resolve these difficulties. We will see them as challenges for which we need to find solutions. We are here to improve our understanding of the subject, and with joint efforts, reach the proposals that could be significant steps for improving EE in enterprises. We don’t expect everyone to agree, but we will try to disagree constructively by respecting diversity of opinions. Because the workshop time is limited I will ask you for attention and focus on the subjects that are on agenda. Based on this discussion I will afterwards analyze the collected data. So that I wouldn’t need to write everything down this discussion will be recorded. Based on the analysis a group report will be made (this means that the confidentiality of everything said will be respected, and findings will be presented in group form without specifying names or similar data).
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AWARENESS OF EE MEASURES FOR SME
(20 min)
For all SME: •
When we speak of EE in business – how much is this topic, in your knowledge, actual in Serbia?
•
In your opinion, how important is improving EE for business? –
For what company profiles is this of more or less importance? Why do you think so?
•
How well you are personally informed about this subject? How well do you think you are informed about EE measures?
•
Have you ever had a need to educate yourself on this subject? What type of knowledge would you find necessary?
•
In what way can people in Serbia inform themselves on this subject, where can they get that information?
•
Have there been, in your knowledge, any organized trainings, and education on the subject of improving EE? Conferences, seminars, trainings, courses...? –
How did you hear about them?
–
Have you attended? o
– •
Why haven’t you- why did you?
(ones who attended) How was it, have the trainings been useful? Can you tell us about other experiences from those trainings/seminars/courses..?
How well do you think medium enterprises in Serbia generally know regulation from this field? Why, is that knowledge necessary for their business? –
Have you heard something about this?
–
Have you heard about energy passports? What do you think about this, how it can reflect on your business?
For consultants and banks •
How well do you think are companies in Serbia informed about this subject?
•
Which way should they try to inform themselves?
•
Concerning the legislation in this field, what should the companies in Serbia especially be aware?
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IDENTIFYING NEED FOR IMPLEMENTING EE MEASURES IN BUSINESS AND PERCEIVED WAYS OF IMPROVING EE (40 min) •
How is this subject addressed in your company, have you talked about improving EE? –
How EE did become a subject? What led you to it, in what circumstances have you thought about it? Was there any kind of specific problem?
For SME11 •
Is there anything you can do to improve EE in your company? What measures do you think your company needs? What else does come in mind?
For SME2 –
Can you share with us your experience – when did you realize your company needs improving EE and what measures did you take?
For consultants and banks •
What measures of improving EE exist? Is there something we didn’t mention, and you think it would be important for companies to know?
For SME1 •
What do you think would be the benefits of implementing EE measures? Some else?
•
Have you tried to calculate possible saves by improving EE, and what would they amount to? –
(if not) Why not? Do you think that would be useful or not?
–
(if yes) What was the result? Are calculated saves substantial? o
Was calculation complicated? Who of you did it?
For SME2 •
What was it like in your company, was the calculation made first?
•
Have you observed benefits from implementing EE measures and what were they?
•
Have you had any more motives for EE project besides cutting costs, which ones?
For consultants and banks •
How complex is the process of calculating economic benefits made this way? o
What kind of involvement from the company does it imply?
•
What is usually the result of making these calculations? What happens in companies after that? When can you start to „feel the effects“ – how long after it pays itself?
•
Do companies have any kind of benefits from implementing EE measures besides saving?
1
SME1 – small and medium enterprises without experience in implementing EE measures; SME2 – small and medium enterprises with experience in implementing EE measures
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PERCEPTION OF ADVISORY ASSISTANCE
(60 min)
For SME1 •
Where can you find any information about professional assistance for improving company’s EE? Imagine that you need to hire professional assistance tomorrow – who would you turn to? Where would you seek the information about this? What would be your first step?
•
Is there an institution or service that should be available for these questions? –
•
Do you know any public institution that provides this kind of help? Nongovernmental organization? International organization? Local government? Someone else?
Do you have any experience with institutions in seeking advisory assistance on this topic? Can you tell us about your experience – did you get the information/advisory assistance you were expecting, were there any problems, did you find the help useful?
PERCEPTION OF THE EXISTING PROFESSIONAL ADVISORY ASSISTANCE For all SME •
What skills and knowledge do you think are necessary for someone to work on improving EE in company (any)? –
•
Do you have those skills and knowledge?
Have you heard about the expression „Energy manager“ before? –
What is meant by it, who are the energy managers, what do they do?
–
What do you think, is the energy manager needed for your company?
–
Who should be the energy manager in your firm? Could you, as an owner, be the energy manager? If not, who else? Someone who already works in your company, person you would permanently hire for that purpose or some independent expert?
For SME1 •
Imagine that you suddenly find that you need to upgrade EE in your company, what would be your first step? (Seeking information, professional help, possible sources of financial assistance).
•
A lot of businesses, even though they need to improve EE, do not decide to seek for professional help. What do you think are the reasons for that?
•
Why wouldn’t you or why didn’t you seek the help of a consultant? Do you think that professional help is not necessary or you don’t need it, for what reason? –
Would you know who to talk to about it?
–
What do you think about the prices of consulting favors?
–
What do you think about the expertise of the consultants? What is their educational profile, what skills and knowledge do they have?
–
Do you think they will always work in the best interest of their client or...?
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•
Can you imagine a situation in which you hire a consultant for EE? What would that situation be, when would that happen?
•
What do you think, what should change with consulting favors so that SME would hire them more often?
For SME2 •
What was your first step when you decided to improve EE? (seeking information, professional help, possible sources of financial assistance)
•
Why did you decide to hire consultants?
•
How did you address this problem, where did you seek this information? How did you find the person you hired as a consultant? Why did you decide to hire her specifically?
•
How satisfied you were with that cooperation?
•
–
How did the communication go, did consultant understand your needs?
–
Did the consultant provide insight in possible sources of financing?
–
Did you think the consultant is working in your best interest?
What did you expect from professional advisory assistance you hired? –
Were your expectations met?
–
What aspect of cooperation could have been better?
–
Do you think that the service was worth as much as you paid for it?
For consultants and banks •
Do you have any obstacles while offering services to businessmen? What are they?
•
What do you think, how could that change?
•
–
More government support?
–
Education of businessmen about the needs for EE?
–
More opportunities for presenting your services to the businessmen?
–
Something else?
How much are you satisfied with the cooperation with businessmen you worked with? –
Did they provide you with all the necessary information?
–
Are they ready for cooperation?
–
Are there any problems in cooperation? What are they?
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USING FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE IN IMPLEMENTATION OF EE MEASURES
(40 min)
AWARENESS OF THE AVAILABLE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE For SME1 •
What is the situation with financial assistance for improving EE? Is someone, in your knowledge, offering financial assistance for implementation of EE measures?
•
Where would you seek information about it? Do you think those information are available? –
•
•
Where do you think should the information about the sources of financial assistance for implementing EE projects be?
Does the state or governmental organizations offer financial assistance for implementing EE measures? What help do they offer? –
Local news? What help do they provide?
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Nongovernmental organizations? International organizations? Which ones? What help do they offer? (if none are mentioned, ask about EBRD, UNDP, GIZ, IFC, KfW)
–
Do banks provide special loans for the development of EE? What are those loans like?
Would you turn to any of the mentioned institutions for financial assistance for implementing EE measures? –
Which one? Why her? What kind of assistance would you seek?
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(if not) Why not?
USING FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE – PERSONAL EXPERIENCES For SME2 that sought financial assistance for developing EE •
Please share with us your experience in seeking financial assistance for implementing EE measures: –
Who did you ask for help?
–
How did you hear about this possibility?
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What kind of assistance were you looking for?
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Did you get it?
–
(if not) Do you know the reason you didn’t get it?
–
Were there any difficulties during that process? Which ones?
For consultants and banks •
What were your experiences and of your clients with different kinds of financial assistance concerning the implementation of EE measures?
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•
Is there any kind of assistance that you think the SME is not familiar with, and could be very useful?
•
Where can SME find necessary information about the offered assistance?
For SME1 •
Have these examples affect your perception of this subject in any way? Do you think that some of these EE measures could be applicable in your business too?
For consultants and banks •
What do you think about these assessments from companies that hadn’t yet worked on improving EE? Do you have something to add?
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MASMI Vojvode Dobrnjca 26/1 11000 Belgrade Serbia tel: +381 11 3390846 +381 11 3390847 fax: +381 11 3390732
[email protected] www.masmi.com
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