Municipal Network for Energy Efficiency

Step 1: Determine how much you spend on energy - accounting

Tracking your energy costs is a smart first step. How extensively you track data will depend on how far reaching your city's or county's program will be. Energy costs seldom appear as a single line item in a local budget, which makes them difficult to monitor and control. If energy were treated as a single expense, it would probably be the single, largest budget item.

In some local governments, energy costs are totaled for each department. In others, energy costs are listed as a series of unrelated expenses for each department. If the latter type of accounting is used, managers and department heads may not even know how much they spend on energy. In that event, the first step is to start monitoring consumption and costs. (You may need to develop and implement a system for tracking energy consumption and costs.) For still other local governments, energy costs are a budgetary line item. Government officials who have tried this approach have found that looking at energy costs as a line item often increases awareness of energy efficiency.

In general, the city must collect data on total electricity, gas (or other primary fuels like coal, oil or mazut) and water consumption - for the city as a whole and by department. Several cities have set up energy accounting systems, which can help municipal officials identify departments and even individual buildings that are energy "hot spots," facilities that are particularly energy wasteful. This information can help prioritize energy efficiency investments. Some cities have expanded beyond city-owned buildings into the residential, commercial and transport sector.

• Accounting system

Step 2: Designate or create a lead office and/or energy manager

Leadership must come from one office, whether it's the planning department, city or county manager's office, public works, environmental services, or a special energy office. This doesn't mean, however, that the lead office is the only department involved. All city or county departments need to be involved in planning and supporting the process.

Successful policies also clearly give the lead office the authority for implementation.

The most important aspect is simply to have someone thinking about energy management in the city full-time. A model for this type of concept is the private sector, where industrial companies often seek to lower costs by hiring a trained energy manager.

Step 3: Link energy programs with community goals

A critical component of this step is to identify major community issues and goals related to energy efficiency. The idea is to piggyback energy issues with existing community goals. Your community may already have a general plan that outlines goals concerning land use, transportation, housing, energy, and the environment. You can often link these goals through an energy efficiency program (eg: housing reform and privatization, district heating improvements and restructuring, etc.)

Step 4: Build grassroots community support

To carry out your goals and objectives, you'll need community involvement. Building support establishes allies and a clear picture of the financial resources you need for a project, compared with what you have available. You can build support through task forces, meetings with citizens, informal networking, and meetings with business leaders, utilities, and interest groups. If you can demonstrate why the community should care about energy, your efforts will be more successful.

Leadership, credibility, and visibility can be attained by connecting with a known corporate or community citizen. One of the most difficult but important tasks is to enlist the aid of people respected in the business community and public arena who will endorse and help to sell your policy.

Step 5: Dont't reinvent the wheel

Find out what's working in other cities through networks like MUNEE and its partners.

Step 6: Prioritize actions and develop a draft plan

With community members and leaders, create a list of options. Next, determine each option's costs, benefits, environmental effects, economic and technological potential, funding resources, and political acceptability. Choose the tasks that will produce the greatest benefit; then prioritize them according to how well they apply to your community.

Some options will be easier to sort than others. Assess the relative impacts of the difficult options by ranking them on a scale, say from 1 to 5. Once you've decided on your list, you're ready to develop a draft plan. You might try having your task force take a first crack at drafting a plan, and then hold public meetings. It's important for the community to help create and review the draft plan, as this builds public support. Once you have a high level of community support, you can take a formal plan to the city council or board of commissioners for adoption.

• Coming up with targets, identify costs and benefits of implementing plan
• Approval of plan by city council, etc.

Step 7: Implement the plan

Implementation of plan - what needs financing, what needs simple attention to reduce waste (low-cost/no-cost).
It's important to start with realistic goals, but it's also essential to avoid short-term thinking. Concentrate on projects that will produce the greatest impact. Many projects may cost little or nothing to implement.

Step 8: Evaluate success and update the plan

Your policy should be a living document, with short-term plans being reevaluated and updated every 2 or 3 years, and long-term plans every 5 years. An evaluation compares your objectives with your outcomes. And that means tracking and documenting savings. When you evaluate, look for a specific, measurable result, such as reduced vehicle miles traveled or reduced air or water emissions. Tracking ensures that you'll have a mechanism to continually report benefits and fine-tune your program.

Step 9: Publicize the benefits

Fostering a clear appreciation of the new policy's benefits is critical. That entails marketing, public relations, and media events. These build trust and credibility, too. Let taxpayers know you've provided more services for fewer dollars.

Your city or county can save money and ensure the availability of resources for years to come. By your taking the initiative, your entire community can benefit from forward thinking. You can generate community pride, enthusiasm, and a feeling of empowerment while building a more sustainable future.

----------------------------------------------------------

Source: U.S. Department of Energy,

Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development