Vision and mission

It is the Vision of the Global ESCO Network

• to be the global driver and inspire government actions for scaling up the contribution of ESCOs to the global response for mitigating the threat of climate change and the goals set out by the Paris Agreement

To realize this, it is the Mission of the Global ESCO Network

• to add to and reinforce existing efforts of National and Regional ESCO Associations to promote increased activities by the ESCO Sector at a global scale

To support the achievement of its vision and mission the Global ESCO Network has established seven practical work streams. These are at the same time topics of task forces, which are inviting contributions from affiliated ESCO associations:

1. Working for formal recognition of the ESCO sector as a pathway for countries to strengthen and achieve energy efficiency ambitions in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
2. Supporting a better understanding within the finance sector of the value and validity of energy performance contracting, enabling investors to engage in the provision of financial resources that facilitates a decisive scale-up of the reach and depth of ESCO activities.
3. Documenting the benefits of applying ESCO principles in business and policy development through international mapping and benchmarking of framework conditions for successful operation of ESCOs and their achievement of material energy savings.
4. Actively promoting the establishment of ESCO associations and ESCO-related policies in countries where ESCOs are yet to establish a market foothold.
5. Widely disseminating knowledge related to best practices in policy and business development related to ESCOs, and raising awareness among policy makers of financially attractive models for energy efficiency improvements.
6. Acting as a platform for exchange of knowledge and experience among National and Regional ESCO Associations on all aspects of ESCO operation, aiming at distilling central issues to inform any of the above-mentioned activities.
7. Convening experts and operating a repository of authoritative literature and other sources of information in order to establish the Global ESCO Network as the go-to resource for any issue pertaining to ESCOs and their promotion as the central concept for implementing energy efficiency investments.

Rationale for the establishment of a Global ESCO Network

Energy Service Companies – ESCOs – deploy a business model directly responding to the global climate change challenge.  By directly using energy savings to pay for the cost of equipment and infrastructure that creates those savings, ESCOs challenge the mantra that emissions reduction activity comes at a cost that many, particularly in developing countries, are unable to carry.  In the business of climate change, ESCOs deliver some of the best returns on investment, reducing energy consumption while combating excess GHG emissions as a significant co-benefit.

ESCOs are not always well recognized as an industry, nor entrenched in national policies. Nowhere has their full potential been unleashed and in many places they still struggle to find sufficient foothold. In some sectors and some countries, however, they are thriving, but rarely as a result of dedicated policies that promote the understanding of reduced energy expenses as an investable asset class, nor the techniques and requirements of successful and widespread Energy Performance Contracting.

In many countries, ESCO Associations work to promote the interests of their members for the establishment of business conditions commensurate with the immense economic and GHG mitigation potentials of energy efficiency, for countries and industries alike. These associations address similar challenges, but do so individually. While the associations do cover the most energy intensive economies, they remain a minority that may benefit from expanding the group of ESCO Associations in order to raise a global voice in global forums in support of Energy Performance Contracting.

The growing urgency of decisive responses to a rapidly changing climate, and the inherent ESCO promise of delivering profitable investments to the same effect, suggests a potentially prominent role of energy efficiency and, as its agents, the global ESCO community in the global climate change agenda, from the highest UN level to the grassroots. However, this is a role that the ESCO concept is yet to attain.

Therefore, the Global ESCO Network works to elevate issues and concepts related to ESCOs to the highest possible level on the international climate policy agenda.