A diagnostic, however sound, translates into action only about one time in two. This finding is at the heart of Noria's model: an inexpensive instrument, used repeatedly, is worth more than a one-off report.
What the sources say
- 47% : the DOE's Industrial Assessment Centers programme, 20,290 evaluations between 1981 and 2022.
- 20 to 30% : eceee 2014.
- 54% of SMEs implement at least one recommendation, but only 30% of the measures (BEAS/DESNZ, United Kingdom).
- ≈ 40% : Alhourani & Saxena, 147 sites.
The two strongest lessons
- In Australia, the diagnostic is mandatory, and implementation does not exceed 54%. Making a diagnostic compulsory is therefore not enough to make it lead to action.
- The NYSERDA FlexTech programme (New York) exceeds 60% adoption, because the diagnostic there is subsidised in equal shares. It is not the diagnostic that determines implementation, it is the scheme around it.
A caveat to know
This corpus is about energy, not materials, the ORNL programme's authors say so themselves. No implementation rate exists for a materials assessment: the 47% is a proxy, not a measurement.