5. Conclusions and suggestions
Building ESCOs plays an important role in reducing carbon emissions in the building sector. Implementing strategies to boost the building ESCO industry has become an urgent issue. This paper utilized SWOT analysis to determine the strategic alternatives through internal and external environmental analysis. After analyzing the building ESCO industry in China, a SWOT matrix was developed that contained two strengths, five weaknesses, three opportunities and four threats. Based on the combination of SWOT matrix analysis, this paper presented series of strategies for the building ESCO industry's development, including the strength–opportunity (SO) strategy, the weakness–opportunity (WO) strategy, the strength–threat (ST) strategy and the weakness–threat (WT) strategy. The specific content of the corresponding strategies includes strengthening economic incentives, establishing a building EPC credit system, promoting technological innovation, expanding the information dissemination channel, promoting model innovation, conducting standardized policies and laws and adjusting energy prices.
ANP was adopted to determine the importance ranking of these seven strategies. The empirical result showed that “WO1: Promoting technological innovation”, “WT1: Carrying out standardized policies and laws” and “SO2: Establishing building EPC credit system” are the best strategies. Based on the results, this research recommended three main actions, including promoting technological innovation, conducting standardizations, and establishing a building EPC credit system. There are some research limitations that need to be improved in future research. In this study, the data input was discussed by the expert group. More experts should be involved to improve the accuracy of the results in further research.
