Our case studies and much of the other materials on this site come from our report Making Business Sense of Energy Efficiency and Pollution Prevention by Miriam Pye (April 1998).

Some believe that protecting the environment will hurt the U.S. economy and put us at a disadvantage with foreign competitors who have less rigorous environmental standards. This may have been true years ago when "tailpipe" technologies were the primary solution to minimizing pollution. Today, however, we know how to protect the environment by using resources more efficiently: through energy efficiency (E2) and pollution prevention (P2). E2 and P2 are just two types of efficiency, and efficiency has always been recognized as being good for business. As more businesses begin to realize the profitability of resource efficiency, E2/P2 will grow in importance as a strategy to stay competitive and maximize shareholder value.

This paper presents a number of case studies of projects that have successfully combined energy efficiency and pollution prevention technologies and strategies to enhance the environment, productivity, and the bottom line. You can access the entire paper by clicking on each of the sections below:

• the relationship between E2 and P2,
• enhancing shareholder value,
• economic energy savings potential and energy efficiency in the industrial sector
• the integrated approach to P2 and efficiency
• case studies of P2/E2
• financial analysis - a primer
• conclusion
• references