The U.S. pulp and paper industry consumes over $7 billion worth of purchased fuels and electricity per year. Energy efficiency improvement is an important way to reduce these costs and to increase predictable earnings, especially in times of high energy price volatility. There are a variety of opportunities available at individual plants in the U.S. pulp and paper industry to reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner. This paper provides a brief overview of the U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR(R) for Industry energy efficiency guidebook (a.k.a. the "Energy Guide") for pulp and paper manufacturers. The Energy Guide discusses a wide range of energy efficiency practices and energy-efficient technologies that can be implemented at the component, process, facility, and organizational levels. Also provided is a discussion of the trends, structure, and energy consumption characteristics of the U.S. pulp and paper industry along with a description of the major process technologies used within the industry. Many energy efficiency measure descriptions include expected savings in energy and energy-related costs, based on case study data from real-world applications in pulp and paper mills and related industries worldwide. The information in this Energy Guide is intended to help energy and plant managers in the U.S. pulp and paper industry reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner while maintaining the quality of products manufactured. Further research on the economics of all measures?as well as on their applicability to different production practices?is needed to assess their cost effectiveness at individual plants.

Target-setting agreements, also known as voluntary or negotiated agreements, have been used by a number of governments as a mechanism for promoting energy efficiency within the industrial sector. A recent survey of such target-setting agreement programs identified 23 energy efficiency or GHG emissions reduction voluntary agreement programs in 18 countries. International best practice related to target-setting agreement programs calls for establishment of a coordinated set of policies that provide strong economic incentives as well as technical and financial support to participating industries. The key program elements of a target-setting program are the target-setting process, identification of energy-saving technologies and measures using energy-energy efficiency guidebooks and benchmarking as well as by conducting energy-efficiency audits, development of an energy-savings action plan, development and implementation of energy management protocols, development of incentives and supporting policies, monitoring progress toward targets, and program evaluation. This report first provides a description of three key target-setting agreement programs and then describes international experience with the key program elements that comprise such programs using information from the three key target-setting programs as well as from other international programs related to industrial energy efficiency or GHG emissions reductions.