The ‘2015 Energy Productivity and Economic Prosperity Index’ authored by The Lisbon Council, Ecofys and Quintel Intelligence and commissioned by Royal Philips, underlines the huge potential for societies to raise economic performance and extend significant environmental and social benefits through improved energy productivity. It is the first global report to rank countries by their energy productivity – based on their economic output per unit of energy consumed. The report warns that the current rate of energy productivity improvement – around 1.3% worldwide each year – is too slow to keep pace with the rising energy demand. According to this study most energy productivity gains will need to come from improvements to residential and non-residential buildings. A simple illustration of energy productivity is boiling an egg, where only 2% of the energy consumed goes into producing the boiled egg. Similarly, nearly 98% of all energy we use in the process of production is being wasted. Just by increasing the use of technology today, such as energy-efficient appliances, LED lighting and insulation, European households could reduce their energy bills by a third. Furthermore, overall energy consumption in the EU could be cut by 35% by more than doubling the rate of the region’s energy productivity improvement from close to 1.5% to 3% per year by 2030.