Shifting energy performance in U.S. cement production

In the mid-1990's, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approached U.S. cement producers to work together to improve the energy efficiency of U.S. cement plants. Initially, EPA and the producers developed basic tools for identifying potential energy reductions and for estimating cement plant greenhouse gas emissions. Then, through EPA's ENERGY STAR® Partnership, the need for corporate energy management was emphasized along with careful measurement and tracking of energy and benchmarking of plant energy performance among the industry nationwide. This paper describes the engagement strategy EPA employed, the tools that were produced to aid cement producers to improve, and the results accomplished through this partnership.