The "European Energy Award" for sustainable communities

Panel: Panel 1. Strategies and integrated policies

Authors:
Michael Stenitzer, E.V.A. - the Austrian Energy Agency
Margot Grim, E.V.A. - the Austrian Energy Agency

Abstract

In many communities energy is a low-priority policy field and a cross-department topic not easy to tackle. For many cities and towns it's hard to assess the effectiveness of their activities and projects in the field of energy-efficiency and renewable energy. Many communities actually do have an overall long-term concept concerning environmental and transport policies, but fail to translate their long-term targets into implemented measures and activities.

The European Energy Award® (EEA) is a quality management system developed in Switzerland, Austria and Germany to overcome these barriers and to establish a long-term targeted sustainable energy policy.

The main features of the EEA are:

initiating a process in the community for regular evaluation and updating an energy action programme as well as the systematic implementation of measures,
including all energy-related fields: development & planning, buildings & facilities, transport, energy supply, internal organisation, communication & co-operation,
accredited advisers are coaching the municipalities along the whole process,
setting up internal structures, suitable for steering the process including all relevant players in the community (politics, administration, citizens, private sector etc.) and last but not least,
an auditing and certification scheme to award the communities according to the degree of implementation of possible measures,
a network of communities for the exchange of experience and know how.

In six years the EEA (also known as Energiestadt and e5) has proven its usefulness and effectiveness in about 170 cities in Switzerland, Austria and Germany by showing a steady progress in their energy performance.