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When new energy efficient products are struggling with their commercialisation and diffusion into widespread applications you would typically expect policy-makers and green lead-users to guide the way. This paper examines the case of the hot water circulator pump industry in Europe, where parts of the industry envisioned and worked for a voluntary energy label, bringing technological innovation, new business and energy savings of approx. 85% for each new circulator pump. The case study explores the complexities of innovation processes where technology, market, actors and policy co-evolve over time to transform an existing socio-technical regime. The paper highlights the importance of policies to reduce barriers towards innovation and energy efficiency and shows that it is not always policy-makers that establish the crucial policies that change the innovation dynamics for the benefit of the environment and the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]