Global competition, commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and a deregulated, integrated European electricity market will ill all probability increase the demand for energy efficiency on the part of companies in Sweden. Investment decisions are an important part of meeting the new demands, because they decide the future efficiency of industrial energy systems. The objective of this study is to investigate. from a managerial perspective, the need to improve decision support in scale industries, which can help to facilitate and improve investment decisions concerning energy efficiency. This work has been conducted through in-depth interviews with representatives for a number of energy-intensive companies and non-energy-intensive companies from different sectors. One need that was identified was the improvement of working methods in order to support the decision-making process. Here, external players seem to be playing an increasingly important role. Access to correct information, better follow-up activities, and transparent, understandable calculations are also considered to be important. The Study will form the foundation for Subsequent work oil decision Support and energy efficiency ill industry. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.