Drivers to energy efficiency measures in recycled paper and pulp industry in India: An interpretive structural modelling-based framework

[Display omitted] •Energy efficiency helps profits significantly in energy intensive paper industry.•Certain drivers support implementation of energy efficiency measures in industry.•A dedicated energy manager, employee skills & costs are most important drivers.•Apex level commitment & costs are independent drivers having strong driving power.•Use of identified drivers may help attaining energy efficiency with less resources. Energy efficiency can contribute significantly to the competitiveness of Paper and pulp industry on account of it being energy intensive. Certain drivers that support implementation of energy efficiency measures are of interest to the decision makers. The present work studies these drivers to energy efficiency in the recycled fibre-based Paper and Pulp industry in India. It pinpoints the drivers that are relevant and important, using interpretive structural modelling. The hierarchical model brings out presence of a dedicated energy manager, skills and motivation of employees and investment costs and payback time to be the most important drivers. The drivers have been classified based on their driving power and dependence power using “cross impact matrix multiplication applied to a classification” (MICMAC) analysis. Top management commitment and investment costs and payback time emerge as independent drivers having strong driving power but weak dependence power. Utilizing these drivers appropriately could help organizational efforts towards energy efficiency significantly.