The public sector in Denmark is trying to decrease its energy consumption actively through systematic projects.
For example, from January 2008 it is imposed by law that the energy efficiency of all buildings in public ownership must be checked and labelled on a regular basis.
In municipalities and regions, the local and regional governments are responsible for carrying out energy saving measures. This means that in Sønderborg, all buildings in public ownership, regardless of their size, are being checked and labelled by an energy consultant every 5 years.
For more information on energy saving measures in the public sector, see the homepages of the Danish Energy Agency, the Danish Energy Saving Trust and the Danish Association of Municipal Corporations.
ProjectZero is of course supporting the idea that the labelling of energy efficiency also points out the possibilities for both large- and small scale energy savings and the possibilities for e.g. converting to CO2 neutral energy sources.
The establishment of the Sønderborg Climate Office is a direct result of ProjectZero’s work. As mentioned elsewhere, ProjectZero is owned by a non-profit trust aiming to make Sønderborg CO2 neutral. The project is also a public-private partnership.
According to the Climate Office, the Finance Committee has unanimously decided that:
”ProjectZero is to be Sønderborg’s new brand, and we propose – as suggested by the City Council – that all future building and renovation projects should be carried out implementing ’intelligent energy management’.
We expect that the municipality’s energy costs in 2008 can be reduced by 5.2 million DKK (app. 0.7 million Euro). These savings will be converted to a trust in order to implement new energy saving measures.”
The local government has drawn up and passed an energy policy including the following topics:
- Municipal corporations
- City and municipality structure
- Building and construction
- Transport and infrastructure
- Industry and agriculture
- Energy sources and recycling
- Tourism and leisure activities
- Education
An energy trust has been established as a public private partnership. At the moment, it contains app. 86 million DKK (11.6 million Euro). Unfortunately, we have not yet found a way to bypass the so-called investment suspensionthat the central government has imposed on the municipalities. Sønderborg’s local government has applied for a special authorisation, but the application has been rejected.
The following reductions of the energy budget have already been implemented:
- 10 percent in 2008 and 20 percent in 2009+
- compared with the measured energy consumption in 2005-2007
- there will be reductions in the consumption of both electricity, water and heating
- the reductions will be measured by the actual consumption of energy units, not by the costs
Purchase and implementation of the energy managing system ’Omega’ - Ω
In April 2008, Sønderborg has signed a contract with the Danish Energy Saving Trust, stating the following:
The energy consumption is to be reduced by 5 percent every year in the years 2008-2011 (20 percent in total)
Sønderborg has joined the climate network of the Danish Association of Municipal Corporations www.kl.dk/klima
Sønderborg has been appointed climate community by the Danish Society for Nature Conservation and is now one of 14 member communities (by August 2008). See www.dn.dk for further information.