Manufacturing, which is destined to play the most significant role in the reindustrialization of Serbia is
also one of the largest energy consumers and environmental polluters. In accordance with this, a large
number of energy and environment management initiatives have been implemented over the years. In
developed countries, these initiatives are at an advanced level, but not in Serbia. A group of manufacturers
in Serbia has recognized the significance of the environmental initiatives implementation, but the
interest in energy management improvement has remained low. Although these initiatives can be used
to achieve cost reduction in industry, not all the manufacturing sectors equally value the importance of
energy management improvement. Among all the manufacturing sectors, it is necessary to prioritize
those with the potentials for energy management improvement, which can be done using different
methods. In this paper, the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method was used to prioritize manufacturing
sectors in Serbia in the area of energy management improvement. Using a created AHP questionnaires
criteria weights were selected. These questionnaires were completed by the experts from the Serbian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, providing us with the opportunity to evaluate the Serbian manufacturing
sectors based on the real life data. The results of the AHP method, which was used as the prioritization
instrument, and their analysis are presented in the paper. As a part of a wider study, aimed at the
improvement of the energy management in Serbia, the three manufacturing sectors with the highest
priority (‘‘Manufacture of food products’’, ‘‘Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers’’,
‘‘Manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products’’) will be analyzed in the future research in terms
of energy process flows, energy management system implementation and other relevant issues.