5 October 2020
Increasing Awareness and Eliminating Energy Waste
“Developing a New Service Model To Support Companies On Energy Efficiency” is a project that has been developed and implemented by Kocaeli Chamber of Industry (Turkey) in partnership with Walloon Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Belgium). It is one of 19 Chamber Partnership projects which is being supported by the European Union in the framework of TEBD.
Using less energy to perform the same task – that is, eliminating energy waste and lowering consumption costs. The aim of the project is to increase Chamber capacity and become a point of contact for SMEs to increase awareness on energy efficiency and educate about energy management to reduce consumption costs. Energy efficiency brings a variety of benefits, it is an important way to increase SMEs’ profitability and competitiveness as well as delivering wider benefits in terms of economic productivity and savings.
In order to increase their Chamber capacity on energy efficiency, Kocaeli Chamber of Industry (Kocaeli CI) carried out studies and organized a study visit to Walloon Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Walloon CCI) to make on-site observations of “best practices” and perform cluster activities on energy efficiency in Walloon Belgium, legal regulations, and incentive systems. Also, after necessary training, Kocaeli CI has been awarded the ISO 50001:2018 Energy Management System certification as a result of an audit conducted by an independent notified body.
There are two benefactor target groups of the project. The first group consists of 20 pilot SMEs operating in Kocaeli, Turkey employing 20-150 people and having completed the Energy Audits identifying the energy leakages and potential energy saving areas. These audits give guidance on investments in order to reduce energy consumption levels. The second group consists of participants of minimum 60 to 150 individuals with the organization of six associated training activities. Thus, it is aimed to complete energy audits in 20 companies and to reach 150 SMEs with training activities.
Within the framework of the partnership project, to increase SME awareness, trainings have been given with main themes being energy management and ISO 50001 Energy Management System. By participating in these training’s, companies have become more conscious of the fact that they can save a significant amount of energy through the implementation of an appropriate energy management system. Also, preliminary energy audits to 20 companies are to be carried out with the support of expert consultants. Site audits to 10 companies were carried out successfully and survey reports were submitted as a result. In addition, energy management plans for 10 companies have been established for which a detailed study has been carried out. Evaluation surveys related to the training’s and audits were distributed and over 90% of the participants indicated that their satisfaction was achieved and related activities were carried out successfully.
In the following of the project, a dissemination seminar will be organized to create the multiplier effect on raising awareness on energy management and ensure the spread of the project studies to the East Marmara region in Turkey.
To find more information on the TEBD Chamber Partnership Project please visit www.enerjiverimliligi.org.
Click here for more information about the Chamber Partnerships.
