Most of the scientific community agrees that increased global warming, due mostly to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, in fact poses a major threat to the environment. As industry is one of the highest energy-using sectors in the world (IEA 2007), a shift toward improved energy efficiency in industry is crucial to limiting carbon dioxide emissions.

According to IPCC (2007), improving industrial energy efficiency is one of the most important ways to reduce the threat of increased global warming. This concept refers to the assumption that though technologies, methods, and processes exist for reducing energy use in industry, barriers hinder their implementation. Overcoming such barriers to improved energy efficiency is thus of great importance.