Providing energy data and information for sustainable manufacturing systems by Energy Cards

Energy and resource efficiency, as main parts of sustainability strategies, have become important objectives for industrial companies. For designing sustainable, energy-efficient manufacturing systems and processes, new or improved tools and methods focusing on energy efficiency are necessary. Detailed but also manageable energy data, information and knowledge are required for energy efficiency improvements. This leads to the need to illustrate the issue “energy” in a tangible and visible form. Energy Management, as an organizational instrument, helps to consider energy efficiency in daily planning and operation activities. Energy Metering supports the continuous acquisition of energy data. Energy Labels are simple tools for benchmarking similar goods. However, they are not available for different industrial systems of a factory. The presented tool “Energy Cards” merges energy data of a system and enables the transfer of energy data, information and knowledge in a structured and clear manner and directly to the shop-floor. In this article, the core concept and the structure of the Energy Cards are described. In addition, possible implementations and an example for determining energy demands are also presented. •In context of energy-efficiency, comprehensive energy data and information are required for planning, analyzing and optimization of systems and processes in factories.•Energy Management, Energy Metering and Energy Labels are common tools to provide energy data and information.•“Energy Cards” are a new type of an instrument which merges energy data and information in structured and clear manner.