An ANP-SWOT approach for ESCOs industry strategies in Chinese building sectors

China consumes more energy and emits more carbon dioxide than any other country. The building sector accounts for nearly 1/3 of the total national energy consumption in China; thus, it is critical to find a solution for improving buildings’ energy efficiency. Under the market-oriented mechanism, constrained by the energy performance contracting (EPC) mode, energy service companies (ESCOs) play an important role in improving energy efficiency for high-energy-consumption industries, including the building sector. The aim of this study is to determine the strategy for boosting the building ESCO industry. By conducting a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis, this paper presented the status of the building ESCO industry in China and proposed alternative strategies. By utilizing a conventional multi-criteria decision-making method, namely, the Analytic Network Process (ANP), this study provides a quantitative basis to analytically determine the ranking of the factors in SWOT analysis and select the best strategy to promote the development of the building ESCO industry. The results showed that the ANP-SWOT is a viable and highly capable methodology that provides invaluable insights for strategic management decisions in the building ESCO industry, and a set of strategies for promoting ESCO development in the building sector were proposed based on this approach.