Harnessing the Power of the Public Purse is the title of the final report delivered by the PROST project. The project was originally conceived as a study on Public Procurement of Energy Saving Technologies in Europe, hence the acronym PROST. Although all the areas covered in the PROST report are subject to public procurement legislation, the study deals with energy efficiency in the (European) public sector sector as a whole, ranging from day-to-day product purchasing to building energy management and investments.

The study was carried out from spring 2001 until late 2002 under the auspices of the European Union's SAVE programme.

Harnessing the Power of the Public Purse: Final report from the PROST study
Full PROST report (pdf, 2,2 MB) excl. appendices
Executive summary (pdf, 450 K)
Contents, acknowledgements & executive summary (pdf, 450 K)

The PROST report chapter by chapter (each pdf ~120-550 K)
Chapter 1 and 2: Introduction; National targets, policies and programmes
Chapter 3: Co-operative purchasing by public administrations
Chapter 4: Energy management in public administrations
Chapter 5: Laws, regulations and guidelines for energy efficiency in the public sector
Chapter 6: Product purchasing, building investments and financial management
Chapter 7: success stories and good examples
Chapter 8: Policies for an energy intelligent public sector
Chapter 9: Life-cycle costs, performance standards or purchasing specifications?
Chapter 10: Specific energy efficiency criteria and life-cycle costs for products
Chapter 11: Measures and tools for improving the energy efficiency of buildings
Chapter 12: The energy, CO2 and fiscal consequences of a European PROST programme
Chapter 13: References and Internet resources (not hyperlinked in the pdf)

PROST appendices (pdf)
Appendix 1: Legal memorandum (159 K)
Appendix 2: Example purchasing specification info sheets (1 MB)
Appendix 3: Detailed "PROST Purchase Specifications" (1 MB)
Appendix 4: Recommendations for minimum performance standards for new and refurbished buildings in the public sector (320 K)
Appendix 5: Summary of costs and benefits from using electronic ballasts, printout of spreadsheet (100K)
Appendix 6: Swiss regulations for proof of cooling demand (120K)
Appendix 7: German recommendations for municipal energy management, unofficial translation (2 MB)
Appendix 8: The feasibility of public internal contracting (PICO) in a number of countries (640K).