IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i9p2354-d1649508.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrating the Assessment of Environmental Costs and the Non-Energy Benefits of Energy Efficiency into an Energy Demand Analysis of the Tertiary Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Sonja Arnold-Keifer

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Strasse 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany)

  • Simon Hirzel

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Strasse 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany)

  • Clemens Rohde

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Strasse 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany
    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Darmstadt University of Technology, Franziska-Braun-Strasse 3, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany)

Abstract

Energy system models or energy demand analysis, such as top-down and bottom-up models, provide energy consumption data in energy end-uses, energy carriers, and subsectors. A technical energy efficiency potential can be determined by applying the best available technology (BAT) values. This paper aims to take the consideration of the energy efficiency potential in an energy system model to a new level by including environmental and social aspects. Using the example of the tertiary sector, it is shown how to incorporate a quantification methodology for non-energy benefits (NEBs) together with the (avoided) environmental costs into the energy efficiency potential of an energy demand analysis. This leads to an overall environmental assessment of the tertiary sector and shows how integrating avoided environmental costs and NEBs increases the economic efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and profitability of energy efficiency measures. Assuming a price of 29.04 EUR-ct 2020 /kWh for the (avoided) environmental costs and a ratio of the total net savings to the net energy savings of 2.3 for the NEBs, all considered energy efficiency measures are economic. This paper shows that including environmental costs and considering NEBs could be important policy instruments.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonja Arnold-Keifer & Simon Hirzel & Clemens Rohde, 2025. "Integrating the Assessment of Environmental Costs and the Non-Energy Benefits of Energy Efficiency into an Energy Demand Analysis of the Tertiary Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-23, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:9:p:2354-:d:1649508
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/9/2354/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/9/2354/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hall, Lisa M.H. & Buckley, Alastair R., 2016. "A review of energy systems models in the UK: Prevalent usage and categorisation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 607-628.
    2. Fleiter, Tobias & Hirzel, Simon & Worrell, Ernst, 2012. "The characteristics of energy-efficiency measures – a neglected dimension," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 502-513.
    3. Meier, Alan & Rosenfeld, Arthur H. & Wright, Janice, 1982. "Supply curves of conserved energy for California's residential sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 347-358.
    4. Di Foggia, Giacomo & Beccarello, Massimo & Borgarello, Marco & Bazzocchi, Francesca & Moscarelli, Stefano, 2022. "Market-Based Instruments to Promote Energy Efficiency: Insights from the Italian Case," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 15(20), pages 1-16.
    5. Giacomo Di Foggia & Massimo Beccarello & Marco Borgarello & Francesca Bazzocchi & Stefano Moscarelli, 2022. "Market-Based Instruments to Promote Energy Efficiency: Insights from the Italian Case," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-16, October.
    6. Yang, Mian & Hou, Yaru & Fang, Chao & Duan, Hongbo, 2020. "Constructing energy-consuming right trading system for China's manufacturing industry in 2025," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    7. Du, Minzhe & Wu, Fenger & Luo, Lichun & Wang, Qiya & Liao, Liping, 2025. "Spatial effects of the market-based energy allocation on energy efficiency: A quasi-natural experiment of energy quota trading," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    8. Worrell, Ernst & Laitner, John A & Ruth, Michael & Finman, Hodayah, 2003. "Productivity benefits of industrial energy efficiency measures," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1081-1098.
    9. Sonja Arnold-Keifer & Simon Hirzel & Clemens Rohde, 2024. "Understanding Energy Demand of the Tertiary Sector by Energy Carriers and End-Uses: An Integrated Bottom-Up and Top-Down Model Taking Germany as the Example," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-25, September.
    10. Fleiter, Tobias & Fehrenbach, Daniel & Worrell, Ernst & Eichhammer, Wolfgang, 2012. "Energy efficiency in the German pulp and paper industry – A model-based assessment of saving potentials," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 84-99.
    11. Kevin Rennert & Frank Errickson & Brian C. Prest & Lisa Rennels & Richard G. Newell & William Pizer & Cora Kingdon & Jordan Wingenroth & Roger Cooke & Bryan Parthum & David Smith & Kevin Cromar & Dela, 2022. "Comprehensive evidence implies a higher social cost of CO2," Nature, Nature, vol. 610(7933), pages 687-692, October.
    12. Taylor, Simon, 2012. "The ranking of negative-cost emissions reduction measures," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 430-438.
    13. Zhang, Shaohui & Worrell, Ernst & Crijns-Graus, Wina, 2015. "Evaluating co-benefits of energy efficiency and air pollution abatement in China’s cement industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 192-213.
    14. Furceri, Davide & Ganslmeier, Michael & Ostry, Jonathan, 2023. "Are climate change policies politically costly?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    15. Reuter, Matthias & Patel, Martin K. & Eichhammer, Wolfgang & Lapillonne, Bruno & Pollier, Karine, 2020. "A comprehensive indicator set for measuring multiple benefits of energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    16. Mills, Evan & Rosenfeld, Art, 1996. "Consumer non-energy benefits as a motivation for making energy-efficiency improvements," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 707-720.
    17. Rudolf, Marco & Schmidt, Mario, 2025. "Efficiency, sufficiency and consistency in sustainable development: Reassessing strategies for reaching overarching goals," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    18. Cátia da Silva & Ana Paula Barbosa‐Póvoa & Ana Carvalho, 2022. "Towards sustainable development: Green supply chain design and planning using monetization methods," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1369-1394, May.
    19. Lisa Ryan & Nina Campbell, 2012. "Spreading the Net: The Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency Improvements," IEA Energy Papers 2012/8, OECD Publishing.
    20. Rosalie Arendt & Till M. Bachmann & Masaharu Motoshita & Vanessa Bach & Matthias Finkbeiner, 2020. "Comparison of Different Monetization Methods in LCA: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-39, December.
    21. Johannes Thema & Felix Suerkemper & Johan Couder & Nora Mzavanadze & Souran Chatterjee & Jens Teubler & Stefan Thomas & Diana Ürge-Vorsatz & Martin Bo Hansen & Stefan Bouzarovski & Jana Rasch & Sabine, 2019. "The Multiple Benefits of the 2030 EU Energy Efficiency Potential," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    22. Eyre, Nick, 1997. "External costs : What do they mean for energy policy?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 85-95, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Accordini, D. & Cagno, E. & Trianni, A., 2021. "Identification and characterization of decision-making factors over industrial energy efficiency measures in electric motor systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    2. Cagno, Enrico & Accordini, Davide & Trianni, Andrea & Katic, Mile & Ferrari, Nicolò & Gambaro, Federico, 2022. "Understanding the impacts of energy efficiency measures on a Company’s operational performance: A new framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    3. Blanco, Christian C. & Caro, Felipe & Corbett, Charles J., 2020. "Do carbon abatement opportunities become less profitable over time? A global firm-level perspective using CDP data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    4. Andersson, Elias & Karlsson, Magnus & Thollander, Patrik & Paramonova, Svetlana, 2018. "Energy end-use and efficiency potentials among Swedish industrial small and medium-sized enterprises – A dataset analysis from the national energy audit program," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 165-177.
    5. Andrea Trianni & Davide Accordini & Enrico Cagno, 2020. "Identification and Categorization of Factors Affecting the Adoption of Energy Efficiency Measures within Compressed Air Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-51, October.
    6. Silva, Felipe L.C. & Souza, Reinaldo C. & Cyrino Oliveira, Fernando L. & Lourenco, Plutarcho M. & Calili, Rodrigo F., 2018. "A bottom-up methodology for long term electricity consumption forecasting of an industrial sector - Application to pulp and paper sector in Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1107-1118.
    7. Trianni, Andrea & Cagno, Enrico & De Donatis, Alessio, 2014. "A framework to characterize energy efficiency measures," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 207-220.
    8. A S M Monjurul Hasan & Andrea Trianni, 2020. "A Review of Energy Management Assessment Models for Industrial Energy Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    9. da Silva, Felipe L.C. & Cyrino Oliveira, Fernando L. & Souza, Reinaldo C., 2019. "A bottom-up bayesian extension for long term electricity consumption forecasting," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 198-210.
    10. Kalantzis, Fotios & Niczyporuk, Hanna, 2021. "Can European businesses achieve productivity gains from investments in energy efficiency?," EIB Working Papers 2021/07, European Investment Bank (EIB).
    11. Wang, Can & Zheng, Xinzhu & Cai, Wenjia & Gao, Xue & Berrill, Peter, 2017. "Unexpected water impacts of energy-saving measures in the iron and steel sector: Tradeoffs or synergies?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1119-1127.
    12. Fábio de Oliveira Neves & Henrique Ewbank & José Arnaldo Frutuoso Roveda & Andrea Trianni & Fernando Pinhabel Marafão & Sandra Regina Monteiro Masalskiene Roveda, 2022. "Economic and Production-Related Implications for Industrial Energy Efficiency: A Logistic Regression Analysis on Cross-Cutting Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    13. Monjurul Hasan, A S M & Trianni, Andrea & Shukla, Nagesh & Katic, Mile, 2022. "A novel characterization based framework to incorporate industrial energy management services," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    14. Geofrey Okoboi & Joseph Mawejje, 2016. "The impact of adoption of power factor correction technology on electricity peak demand in Uganda," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 5(1), pages 1-14, December.
    15. Ewelina Olba-Zięty & Jakub Jan Zięty & Mariusz Jerzy Stolarski, 2023. "External Environmental Costs of Solid Biomass Production against the Legal and Political Background in Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-27, May.
    16. Massimo Beccarello & Giacomo Di Foggia, 2023. "Review and Perspectives of Key Decarbonization Drivers to 2030," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-13, January.
    17. Paramonova, Svetlana & Thollander, Patrik & Ottosson, Mikael, 2015. "Quantifying the extended energy efficiency gap-evidence from Swedish electricity-intensive industries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 472-483.
    18. Hasanbeigi, Ali & Morrow, William & Sathaye, Jayant & Masanet, Eric & Xu, Tengfang, 2013. "A bottom-up model to estimate the energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction potentials in the Chinese iron and steel industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 315-325.
    19. Levihn, Fabian, 2016. "On the problem of optimizing through least cost per unit, when costs are negative: Implications for cost curves and the definition of economic efficiency," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1155-1163.
    20. Olsthoorn, Mark & Schleich, Joachim & Klobasa, Marian, 2015. "Barriers to electricity load shift in companies: A survey-based exploration of the end-user perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 32-42.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:9:p:2354-:d:1649508. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.