Plants are generally designed for minimum 20 years life in the chemical process industry. They actually operate even longer than the design life due to good operation & maintenance (O&M) practices. Inefficient design causes revenue loss in terms of higher energy consumption which becomes exorbitant loss considering the long plant life.  Although energy efficiency can be improved during operation phase by plant modifications but it incurs higher cost in comparison to an energy efficient design (EED) at the first place during project phase. EED not only results in substantial material benefits in terms of fuel & power savings and accordingly reduced energy bills but also contributes towards sustainability due to lower emissions. EED is extremely important and beneficial but very challenging to achieve due to numerous barriers. These barriers limit the energy efficiency relative to the practically achievable performance. Impediments to EED are attributed to a wide range of roots encompassing priorities, procedures, practices, behaviors, competencies, time bars and economics etc. This paper presents review of barriers to EED experienced in large industrial projects. Paper also discusses design process in context of energy efficiency and addresses the root causes of failures to achieve efficient design. Paper presents systematic methodology and approach to ensure EED and proposes plausible solutions to cope barriers.