Not all industrial facilities have the staff or the opportunity to perform a detailed audit of their operations. The lack of knowledge of energy efficiency opportunities provides an important barrier to improving efficiency. Benchmarking has demonstrated to help energy users understand energy use and the potential for energy efficiency improvement, reducing the information barrier.  “Best Practice” energy intensity values, representing the most energy-efficient processes that are in commercial use in at least one location worldwide.

The Industrial Energy group, a subgroup of International Energy Studies has been developing a set of documents that are useful in reducing energy intensity.