An energy management maturity model for China: Linking ISO 50001:2018 and domestic practices

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125168Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A comprehensive strategy to construct a solid knowledge base was demonstrated.

  • Energy management practices in China were characterized by massive domestic cases.

  • A maturity model based on ISO 50001:2018 was proposed for China and other emerging economies.

  • Five maturity levels were justifiably defined, along with four maturation phases.

  • The model was validated through a longitudinal study of three industrial cases.

Abstract

Well-structured Energy Management Maturity Models (EMMMs) are advanced and easy-to-use energy management (EM) approaches for energy management systems (EnMSs), providing both qualitative metrics and improvement guidelines. And the metrics serve the most valuable role. To furnish the users in different contexts (regional or industrial) with optimal applicability, an EMMM should deliver the most specific, precise, and valid metrics. It requires the latest explorations of this domain to evolve from the existing prototypes and keep improving the theoretical hypotheses about EM maturation, particularly for emerging economies like China. Accordingly, this study attempts to propose a highly practice-based Energy Management Maturity Model for China (EMMM-China), intending to make twofold contributions to this domain. For the methodological perspective, this study has demonstrated a set of highly referable strategies to felicitously formulate a model’s metrics. A solid knowledge base for deducing hypotheses, encompassing both EM imperfections and good practices, was crucially constructed by taking in empirical experience from scientific literature and over 70 domestic cases. On this basis, five maturity levels and four maturation phases were justifiably defined. To validate the reliability of the model, three industrial cases were repeatedly assessed by EMMM-China in a longitudinal study design. And for the outcome perspective, EMMM-China serves as a new ISO 50001-based model for global users. The High Level Structure (HLS) of ISO 50001:2018 and numerous widely recognized success factors for EM were both adopted. With extended knowledge that goes beyond EnMS standards, EMMM-China enables long-term applicability to even certified organizations. The proposed model is believed to work on China and other emerging economies as a referable meta-approach.

Introduction

Emerging economies (e.g., China, India, Brazil, Vietnam, Thailand, and South Africa) have been and will remain the primary contributors to the world energy demand in the long term (EIA, 2019; Fernando et al., 2018a; Mangla et al., 2020). China should be justifiably the most prominent and typical example with blooming manufacturing (Hove and Tursoy, 2019). For this “world factory” (Ngai et al., 2013b; UNIDO, 2017a, 2017b), the industrial sector has heavily relied on fossil fuels and been long regarded extremely energy-intensive (Abdelaziz et al., 2011; Guo et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2015; Trianni et al., 2013; Zou et al., 2016). In the context of acute and cascading sustainability challenges (Martin et al., 2012; Moktadir et al., 2019), a crucial strategy is shared among an increasing number of emerging economies. These countries are ascribing greater importance to the energy management (EM) to subtly balance the industry-driven economies and energy consumption.

Represented by ISO 50001, Energy management system (EnMS) standards are widely applicable EM guidelines. They have permanently transformed the energy performance of numerous organizations worldwide, by giving them a strategic tool to use their energy more efficiently and effectively (Naden, 2018). A sizable body of literature has highlighted that significant energy efficiency (EE) gains and energy-savings can be yielded cost-effectively through long-term operation on an ISO 50001-based EnMS (Chiu et al., 2012; Fiedler and Mircea, 2012; Jovanović et al., 2017; McKane et al., 2017; UNIDO, 2013a), even without requiring a large financial investment (UNIDO, 2013a). Stimulated by countless successful stories, China decisively responded to the tide of EM standardization and gave great impetus to setting up EnMSs by policy instruments, e.g., the Top-10,000 program (CNCA, 2009; Energy Institute, 2016; McKane et al., 2017; Nabitz et al., 2016; NDRC, 2011; NDRC and CNCA, 2012). ISO 50001 adoption has been accelerating in China since 2014 when EnMS certifications officially started (CNCA and NDRC, 2014). By the end of 2018, China has accumulated more than half of the ISO 50001 certificates in Asia. 5543 certificates in total (Hong Kong and Macau included) have been issued statistically (ISO, 2019; ISO, 2019; ISO, 2019; ISO, 2018). The changes over the past decade were heartening as significantly declining industrial energy consumption and accumulated EM experience have taken place. Therewith more and more organizations have become energy-conscious.

However, a consensus is emerging in the global academia that an EnMS standard like ISO 50001 is by no means an ultimate theoretical framework without defining the depth and breadth of EM activities (Finnerty et al., 2018a). Its limitations lie in at least two aspects. On one hand, it only provides minimum requirements for systematic EM processes, rather than detailed metrics for EM assessment or benchmarking (Trianni et al., 2019). The criteria of EnMS certifications commonly focus more on the standard compliance in management processes, commitment, policy, and documentation (Rietbergen et al., 2015). On the other hand, an EnMS standard is a general guideline of EM implementation rather than a best practice reference. It usually fails to provide a roadmap and enable organizations to plan continual EM improvements after certifications (Antunes et al., 2014; Finnerty et al., 2018b; Jovanović and Filipović, 2016; Ngai et al., 2013a; Trianni et al., 2019). EM cannot be immutable, and even a certified EnMS is still far from optimization. Accordingly, advanced EM approaches as further solutions are eagerly wanted to succeed standards as long-term improvement enablers.

In recent years, energy management maturity models (EMMMs) have awakened global interest as such advanced approaches. Their practicality is so incontestable now that the newly published ISO 50004:2020 has incorporated a similar idea for guiding the EM improvement. A step forward from the standards, the EMMMs focus on an organization’s ability to manage energy based on the concept of maturity (Trianni et al., 2019). Several forms of EMMMs have been developed for industries in the past few years as easy-to-adopt theoretical frameworks. These models can serve both as a qualitative EM assessment tool and a step-by-step maturation guideline (Ngai et al., 2013a). Embodied in some recently reported EMMMs like EMMM50001 (Jovanović and Filipović, 2016), EM3 (Finnerty et al., 2018a), and EEM assessment framework (Prashar, 2017), the extended knowledge refined from global best practices has gone beyond the ISO 50001 requirements and allows these models to be widely applied to even certified organizations. All these striking features are believed to prompt EnMSs to recurrently consummate their practices. Despite this domain is still in its infancy (Finnerty et al., 2018a), the first stage of exploration has made delightful achievements. This stage has generally addressed how to felicitously structure the theoretical frameworks by several well-developed models. A set of exploratory hypotheses about organizational EM maturation were proposed along with the definition of maturity levels. These models allow a deep analysis of each EM activity or process (Introna et al., 2014). For many industrial enterprises in China (CIEs), an ISO 50001-based EMMM with five levels (like EMMM50001) was just what they need to close the methodological gaps.

The ever-improving cycle of hypothesis formation is suggested as EMMM studies generally followed the Hypothetical-Deductive (HD) research paradigm (Prashar, 2017; StudyDeeper, 2019; TestMyPrep, 2020). The latest explorations are attempting to step into the second stage or the next cycle. The authors believe that the major focus of the second stage is to better elaborate and refine the hypotheses of EM maturation for different contexts (regional or industrial), aiming to maximize the model’s specificity, preciseness, and validity in metrics (Le and Hoang, 2017; Willner et al., 2016). This study was put in the context of emerging economies and attempted to propose a highly practice-based maturity model (MM) called the Energy Management Maturity Model for China (EMMM-China). Few similar studies specifically regarding EM in China and other emerging economies have been found. The anticipated contributions made by this study are twofold:

  • a)

    The methodological perspective: This study showcases a comprehensive strategy to construct a very solid supportive knowledge base for model development (in the context of a specific country or region). And for the model validation by a case study, an innovative longitudinal design is presented and suggested;

  • b)

    The outcome perspective: This study provides a five-level EMMM based on the newly published ISO 50001:2018 standard for global users. A set of highly referable theoretical hypotheses of EM maturation are proposed for China and other emerging economies. And for the first time, the characteristics of EM practices in China encompassing both imperfections and good practices are comprehensively summarized.

The research framework presented in Fig. 1 shows how this study was structured from the Methodology to Practice. The whole work was inseparable from the context of ISO 50001 and EM in China (see Section 2.1 Energy management system and ISO 50001, 2.2 Context of energy management in China). The conventions shared among various EMMM studies and the current research gaps (see Section 2.3) eventually made the image of a needed model clear (see Section 2.4). The Methodology element on the left of Fig. 1 reveals how EMMM-China was born on the basis of the supportive knowledge base (see Section 4). The model development was a progressive process that started with the process model (see Section 3). After the stages of EM maturity were rationally defined (see Section 5.1), the two-axial model framing came to a completion. With the knowledge incorporated into the frame, Section 5.2 serves up the foremost outcome in a grid manner, which can be called EMMM-China (with detailed descriptions) as an advanced EM approach for the Practice element. To help organizations with EM improvement, a gap analysis was suggested by following the guidelines in Section 5.3. The reliability of EMMM-China, mainly as an EM assessment tool, has been very concerned all the while. To this end, a multi-case study in an innovative longitudinal design was necessary for the validation (see Section 6.1). Sufficient discussions on the assessment results and user experience (see Section 6.2) have validated that EMMM-China is reliable and easy-to-use. Nevertheless, the ever-improving cycle has no end. When the authors get more feedback from the practical level (the dotted lines in Fig. 1), EMMM-China will be further optimized in response to the real-world changes.

Section snippets

Background and literature review

This section is from both contextual and scientific perspectives. Within the limited extent, the authors have attempted to uncover the driving forces for EMMM-China development by reviewing the EnMS, the EM in China, and EMMMs. Some of the provided contextual information on China was rarely presented before. The currently needed methodological breakthroughs in EM assessments for CIEs were revealed by the discussions.

Previous EMMMs have been systematically summarized to help constructing a

ISO 50001-based process model

It is almost certain that the next meta-standard for EnMS in China will keep consistency with the newly revised version of ISO 50001. Thus, the process model adopted by this study was based on ISO 50001:2018 to ensure better applicability in the next few years.

The most significant revision brought about by ISO 50001:2018 was a structure update (see Fig. 3) due to the ISO High Level Structure (HLS) adoption. Additionally, the terms and definitions have been updated. The added details on some

Supportive knowledge base

To construct a solid supportive knowledge base was undoubtedly the biggest challenge of this study. Domestic EM practices in China have not been systematically summarized by any previous studies as yet. To bridge the gaps, the practice-based EM characteristics in China were intensively collected, summarized, and categorized during this research. The methodologies were introduced in Section 4.1 then. Given that some knowledge gaps cannot be perfectly filled in only by case studies, the embedded

Energy management maturity model for China

In this section, an Energy Management Maturity Model for China (EMMM-China) is proposed as the foremost outcome of this study. As stated at the end of Section 2.4, there were two pivotal challenges to address throughout the development of EMMM-China, and a tough one concerning the knowledge of domestic EM practices has been effectively settled. The other challenge was to encapsulate the refined characteristics of domestic EM practices in an ISO 50001-based structure. It was deceptively easy

Model validation: case study

EMMM-China has been validated through a multi-case study to demonstrate the model’s usability for assessing EM performance. A case study or survey was undoubtedly an essential process for almost all previous EMMM studies. Notwithstanding, why and how to conduct a case study is still necessarily discussed before any results are presented. It was sincerely believed that there is no perfect way and only the appropriate way exists. Were the approaches adopted by previous studies really appropriate?

Discussions

So far, the authors have no doubt that EMMM-China is capable of supporting CIEs in EM improvement excellently. The original purpose of this study has been fully responded. As both ISO 50001-based models, what are the key differences that make EMMM-China more applicable than EMMM50001 in the context of China?

The difference in the process model is apparent. The isolated process “Resources” added in this study is one of the crucial changes inherited from ISO 50001:2018. This topic has been

Conclusions and future work

This study has focused on a crucial but seldom thoroughly investigated domain in China—energy management on a non-technological and organizational aspect. On the verge of stepping into a new era, subsequent government-driven EE programs will tail off and no longer make such a huge difference as the Top-10,000 program did. Successive movements towards a sustainably motored industrial society are deemed to be unprompted and self-optimizing strategies within various organizations. With numerous

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Yuhui Jin: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Yan Long: Resources, Writing - review & editing, Project administration. Shiping Jin: Investigation, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Qing Yang: Writing - review & editing. Bingnan Chen: Investigation, Validation, Formal analysis. Yan Li: Resources, Investigation, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Lijie Xu: Resources, Validation, Supervision.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This study is financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (National Key Research and Development Program of China, No. 2016YFF0201502-2). The authors are grateful to Shenzhen Institute of Standards and Technology for performing case studies and sharing valuable user experience.

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