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PIUS-Programme
Published on 01 October 2020

Germany
Darmstadt
This is the good practice's implementation level. It can be national, regional or local.
About this good practice
PIUS stands for production-integrated environmental protection (“Produktionsintegrierter Umweltschutz”) and is a support system comprising of the advisory scheme PIUS-Beratung and the funding scheme PIUS-Invest. Both PIUS programmes are interlinked but they also can be applied separately.
The goal of PIUS-Beratung is to identify savings in the area of production, service and trade. Advisors will develop solutions on how to optimise processes in the energy cycle and in the cycle of materials. It is possible to obtain a grant for up to 50% of this advisory service, with a maximum of 600 Euros per advisor day (650 euros in ERDF priority areas) and a maximum of 12,000 Euros (13,00 in ERDF priority areas) over a period of 3 years.
PIUS-Invest is the second part of the system. It can be used to implement the cost reduction measures identified in the PIUS-Beratung. While simple organizational changes can already lead to energy efficiency, major investments are often needed. Therefore, the funding applies to process and organizational innovations, for example improvements and efficiency increases in production and business processes or investments in environmentally friendly plant engineering. Required are direct actions that lead to a reduction in material and energy consumption and consequently to a reduction in CO2 emissions. PIUS-Invest offers a grant of up to 30% with a maximum of 500,000 Euros. Projects will be supported with 1 Euro for every kilogram of CO2.
The goal of PIUS-Beratung is to identify savings in the area of production, service and trade. Advisors will develop solutions on how to optimise processes in the energy cycle and in the cycle of materials. It is possible to obtain a grant for up to 50% of this advisory service, with a maximum of 600 Euros per advisor day (650 euros in ERDF priority areas) and a maximum of 12,000 Euros (13,00 in ERDF priority areas) over a period of 3 years.
PIUS-Invest is the second part of the system. It can be used to implement the cost reduction measures identified in the PIUS-Beratung. While simple organizational changes can already lead to energy efficiency, major investments are often needed. Therefore, the funding applies to process and organizational innovations, for example improvements and efficiency increases in production and business processes or investments in environmentally friendly plant engineering. Required are direct actions that lead to a reduction in material and energy consumption and consequently to a reduction in CO2 emissions. PIUS-Invest offers a grant of up to 30% with a maximum of 500,000 Euros. Projects will be supported with 1 Euro for every kilogram of CO2.
Expert opinion
SMEs are among the target groups for resource and energy efficiency upgrades that are most difficult to mobilise, and dedicated programmes to support and motivate SME owners to take action are needed.
External advisory services such as energy and material use assessments bring the required expertise into the SMEs that typically do not have their own dedicated skilled energy or resource manager intro muros. The PIUS check does this.
Once the savings potential has been identified, it is further highly recommended to offer follow-up financing support for the implementation of these savings measures. To this end, a mix of grant and loan is best practice with SMEs. The PIUS Invest scheme offers this, and links nicely the level of grant to the savings expected by the investment, expressed in CO2 equivalent.
Overall, the PIUS check and invest scheme is a very good package to support and motivate SMEs to invest in resource efficiency.
Financed with ERDF, this is a handy tool of high interest to any MA who wishes to support their SME based in greening their business.
External advisory services such as energy and material use assessments bring the required expertise into the SMEs that typically do not have their own dedicated skilled energy or resource manager intro muros. The PIUS check does this.
Once the savings potential has been identified, it is further highly recommended to offer follow-up financing support for the implementation of these savings measures. To this end, a mix of grant and loan is best practice with SMEs. The PIUS Invest scheme offers this, and links nicely the level of grant to the savings expected by the investment, expressed in CO2 equivalent.
Overall, the PIUS check and invest scheme is a very good package to support and motivate SMEs to invest in resource efficiency.
Financed with ERDF, this is a handy tool of high interest to any MA who wishes to support their SME based in greening their business.
Works at
Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform
Resources needed
The programme is financed by the ERDF
Evidence of success
The programme has led to over 30 investement projects. The investments have a total expenditure of 29.7 M € with 7.4 M € of granted subsidies and expected CO2-savings of 98,300 tons per year.
Potential for learning or transfer
This practice is potentially interesting for other regions, since many already offer energy consulting. A key factor for sucess is to accompany any advisory-scheme with a matching investment-scheme, so that the potential savings can actually be implemented.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Organisation
Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development

Germany
Darmstadt
Contact
Project Manager