Trend breakout scenario impacts on the energy consumption of hospitals: findings of a field survey. (abstract)

摘要

During the twentieth century, the service industry has experienced strong growth and now represents, in most industrialized countries, more than three quarters of the GDP and employment. Its energy consumption at the same time rapidly increased. However, due to its relatively low energy consumption (compared to the industrial or residential sectors), its energy demand and its mechanisms have been overlooked. Given the vital stakes involved in bringing energy demand under control, it is important to fill this gap. In this paper we seek to understand the way innovation in the service sector might impact the energy demand. There is very little theoretical work on the links between innovations and the dynamics of energy consumption in service industries. Existing studies mainly analyze the energy impact of ICT adoption (Information and Communication Technology). There are also few analysis of the impact of e-commerce development. Despite the claim to analyze the impact of innovations on energy consumption in the service sector, these studies remain very technologically oriented. There is not an integrative approach to the relationship between innovation and the dynamics of the evolution of energy demand, which would account for all forms of innovation within services (including non-technological innovations). We seek to provide such an integrative approach. Within the limited scope of this paper, we restrict ourselves to one specific service sector -the hospital sector. We chose this sector for it has an important non- technological dimension and for that in recent years there have been many innovations in this sector (both technological such as e- health and non-technological such as the new activity-based financing system).