ACT LOCAL – in a European wide network – e5 and the European Energy Award® – a way to realise permanent and sustainable energy-efficiency projects in communities

Silke Mader and Andrea Leindl, Austrian Energy Agency

Keywords

European Energy Award, e5, energy-efficiency, energy-saving, local and regional energy-related measures, European network, municipalities, quality management system, energy-audit, certification, benchmark, energy and CO2 balancing

Abstract

Nowadays communities are increasingly faced with questions such as:

What can be done within shrinking budgets for communities?
How can politicians be inspired by energy-saving measures?
How can sustainable and permanent projects be realised?

The Austrian e5 program for energy efficient communities as a part of the European Energy Award® (eea®) offers satisfactory answers to these questions. The program supports communities that want to contribute to a sustainable energy policy and urban development through the rational (efficient) use of energy and an increased use of renewable energies.

For a successful implementation, two factors are relevant: A guided civil participation process in the city or municipality. Local energy teams assist in managing the communication between citizens and relevant stakeholders in order to enforce local activities. Apart from this civil participation process, a clear political commitment on a local, regional and federal state level is crucial for the successful realisation of energy saving measures. The paving of this way, the coordination, the exchange of know-how and experience as well as the organisation of further education come under the umbrella of e5- Austria and European Energy Award®.

Finally, the core of the matter is the certification and award for energy related achievements and the monitoring of success through regular audits. This gives all participating communities the chance of benchmarking in a European context and exchanging their experience. So, a European network of eea®-cities is spreading out and is leaving visible marks: Up to now, more than 300 municipalities and cities in ten European countries have taken part in the network.