Promoting Resource Efficiency in Small & Medium size ... - UNEP

Benchmarks
This chapter provides sector-specific benchmarks for a selection
of industries including:
• Textiles
• Leather
• Paper
• Food and beverage
• Metal manufacturing
See Section 2.8 for a brief explanation of the process of
benchmarking. As a first step, identify the relevant consumption
from your thematic module: water, energy (electricity and/or heat),
raw materials, waste. Then calculate the respective number for the
company you are investigating and compare it to the numbers
given here. Be aware of the range given. In case the range appears
wide, or the numbers apparently do not match your experience,
consult the relevant document for the technological description of
the sector, the description of specifics of the companies sampled,
the size of the enterprise or the product characterisation.
The benchmarks included in this training manual are a part of the
benchmarks included in the electronic version of the toolkit. Most
of the benchmarks included here are taken from the best available
technology reference notes (also known as BREF-notes).
The European IPPC Bureau is a division of the Sustainable
Production and Consumption Unit of the Institute for Prospective
Technological Studies (IPTS), one of the scientific institutes of the
European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). The Bureau
was set-up to organise an exchange of information between
Member States and industry on Best Available Techniques (BAT)
and BAT associated monitoring and developments.
In the international context, the European information exchange
on BAT is considered to be a useful contribution from the EU
to the global process initiated in 2002 at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development so that non-EU countries can also reap
the benefits of this work. 98
The electronic version of the BATs includes tracking numbers from
equipment suppliers, case studies and a variety of other pertinent
manuals and studies. The benchmarks relation to different
subsectors or to individual processes are indicated. Most of the
benchmarks relate energy, water or raw materials consumption to
production.
Also carefully check the units, especially when benchmarking
energy consumption. Convert kJ or MJ to kWh where relevant,
or convert kg of fuel to kWh. For your reference: 1 standard cubic
metre of natural gas or fuel oil roughly has a calorific value of 10
kWh; coal, depending on the quality, about 6 to 7.
If your company is producing a variety of products, try to compose
indicators by weighing indicators for the individual products e.g.
for the tannery processing hide and sheepskin, you might weigh
the indicators for hide processing and skin processing according
to production and add to a benchmark.
For several sectors water and energy consumption for individual
unit operations are given. Again combine them to generate a
benchmark for your process, considering the relevant units e.g.
for the case of water consumption of cotton processing to grey
fabric, you will have to add the water consumption for de-sizing
and scouring. In this case then mercerising, dyeing, wet finishing
is not relevant.
98) European Commission, Joint Research Center, 2008.
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