42 I. RØPKE ET AL.
my CLimate pLan miDDeLfart:
a gooD praCtiCe exampLe
As part of a broader climate commitment strategy, Middelfart Municipality
initiated a somewhat alternative approach to energy renovation of private homes in 2011, called ‘My Climate Plan’. The municipality had
good experiences with energy renovations of public and commercial
buildings through the so-called ESCo models. Here, Energy Service
Companies help the owner of a building to invest in optimizing energy
consuming installations within the building, paid by the obtained energy
savings. This setup was, however, not commercially viable for small private households, which the municipality also wished to address in their
climate policy. As a result, Middelfart Municipality developed the idea
of an ‘ESCo light’ initiative, where the professional Energy Service
Companies were substituted with a local strategic partnership, consisting of a number of local stakeholders (craftsmen, a bank, and utility companies, among others) in order to provide better incentives for
homeowners in the municipality to carry out energy renovations of their
homes (Westergaard 2011).
A key challenge was that municipalities have no persuasive or regulative planning instruments to mobilize energy renovations among private homeowners. As a result, the lack of energy optimization for small
privately owned buildings represents a hindrance for reaching ambitious climate targets in many Danish municipalities. Numbers from
Teknologirådet (2008) show that while 145,000 households renovated
their kitchen, 165,000 renovated bathrooms, and many fitted new
floors, put in new windows and renovated roofs, only 20,000 carried
out energy retrofits. Formerly available national subsidies for energy renovations have almost disappeared, so incentives are low. The strategic
lever developed in Middelfart was built on the foundation that energy
retrofits can be meaningful for homeowners to perform if investment in
energy optimization is carried out together with general renovation projects in the house. For example, it is much cheaper to insulate a roof, if
you are already installing a new one. The municipality saw the potential
of using local craftsmen as spokespersons for energy renovations, when
bidding on general renovation projects. Together with the Knowledge
Center for Energy Savings in Buildings, the municipality helped to provide a supplement to an existing energy advice training that was offered
my CLimate pLan miDDeLfart:
a gooD praCtiCe exampLe
As part of a broader climate commitment strategy, Middelfart Municipality
initiated a somewhat alternative approach to energy renovation of private homes in 2011, called ‘My Climate Plan’. The municipality had
good experiences with energy renovations of public and commercial
buildings through the so-called ESCo models. Here, Energy Service
Companies help the owner of a building to invest in optimizing energy
consuming installations within the building, paid by the obtained energy
savings. This setup was, however, not commercially viable for small private households, which the municipality also wished to address in their
climate policy. As a result, Middelfart Municipality developed the idea
of an ‘ESCo light’ initiative, where the professional Energy Service
Companies were substituted with a local strategic partnership, consisting of a number of local stakeholders (craftsmen, a bank, and utility companies, among others) in order to provide better incentives for
homeowners in the municipality to carry out energy renovations of their
homes (Westergaard 2011).
A key challenge was that municipalities have no persuasive or regulative planning instruments to mobilize energy renovations among private homeowners. As a result, the lack of energy optimization for small
privately owned buildings represents a hindrance for reaching ambitious climate targets in many Danish municipalities. Numbers from
Teknologirådet (2008) show that while 145,000 households renovated
their kitchen, 165,000 renovated bathrooms, and many fitted new
floors, put in new windows and renovated roofs, only 20,000 carried
out energy retrofits. Formerly available national subsidies for energy renovations have almost disappeared, so incentives are low. The strategic
lever developed in Middelfart was built on the foundation that energy
retrofits can be meaningful for homeowners to perform if investment in
energy optimization is carried out together with general renovation projects in the house. For example, it is much cheaper to insulate a roof, if
you are already installing a new one. The municipality saw the potential
of using local craftsmen as spokespersons for energy renovations, when
bidding on general renovation projects. Together with the Knowledge
Center for Energy Savings in Buildings, the municipality helped to provide a supplement to an existing energy advice training that was offered