Focus

Industry accounts for a large segment of the energy consumed globally and, as a result, advances made by industry toward increased energy efficiency have a significant influence on the global energy and environmental outlook. This chapter offers an overview of strategies, methodologies, and resources industry can use to address one of the greatest global challenges of our time: how to foster economic growth while also addressing energy-supply issues and the consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels.

Synopsis

Over the past decades, three factors have dramatically changed the way the world thinks about sustainable energy.

• Economic issues: affordable and less volatile energy pricing is critical to economic investment and growth.

• Security issues: supply may be impacted by geopolitical issues and aggravated by political instability in some of the world's largest oil- and gas-producing regions.

• Environmental issues: growing concerns about escalating greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and their impact on the planet.