Act Now!

ACT NOW!

Europe’s biggest energy resource is energy efficiency – and one way of becoming more energy efficient is decreasing the energy consumption needed to heat buildings. The project tackles energy efficiency in the existing building stock of smaller and larger cities around the Baltic Sea. The project’s aim is to help municipal staff involved in energy efficiency measures by improving their knowledge about energy losses, competences for preparing investments, and skills to stimulate private investments in energy efficiency.

Project Overview

Act Now! wants to support Baltic municipalities to succeed from Strategic Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) to an actual reduction of CO₂emissions. Energy efficiency is the key and the building stock is the treasure to be unearthed for a contribution to reach this goal. By capacity building and revelation of the efficiency potential hidden in heating systems and insulation, the expert tandems of Act Now! aim to foster a new approach in decision makers especially on housing and public buildings.

Act Now! In general

For energy efficiency improvements in public buildings
Act Now!—this is the call for improving energy efficiency in public and private buildings by enhancing the capacity of decision makers. The international project of the same name has been launched in Bremerhaven in February 2018 with a kick-off meeting of 37 participants from 18 partners in the Baltic Sea area. The project was initiated by “Klimastadtbüro”, the climate city office of Bremerhaven, which now coordinates the project. “Act Now!” is funded with EUR 3.55 million by the European Union.

Reasoning of the project

Fostering the municipalities’ CO₂ reduction targets
Time is running out, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and accelerate global warming. What can communities do to implement climate action plans and to achieve CO₂ reduction targets they set? During the three-year term of ”Act Now!”, 18 project partners will develop approaches and modules that will empower municipalities to significantly improve the energy efficiency of buildings.

Main Working Packages

Knowledge tandems bring expert experience into the regions
The core idea of Act Now! is to work in tandems consisting of experienced energy efficiency firms and institutions and local administrations. In the initial phase of the project the local situation and needs for improvements of energy efficiency will be investigated in ten selected municipalities. Individual capacity building schemes for partner communities will be developed from the results of this analysis. All experiences gained and tools developed during the project will feed into further dissemination of the capacity building process also outside the project Act Now!

Measures

The core idea of Act Now! is to work in tandems consisting of experienced energy efficiency firms and institutions and local administrations. The project aims at improving energy efficiency in public and private buildings by enhancing the capacity of decision makers.

What the stakeholders say

I am happy that Šilutė district municipality participates in the "Act Now!" project, as increasing energy efficiency is one of the strategic goals of the municipality.

Vytautas Laurinaitis, Mayor of Šilutė

A systematic energy efficiency work is essential for reducing the costs and the climate impact of buildings in a municipality. Therefore, I follow the Act Now! project activities with great interest.

Akko Karlsson, Deputy Chairwoman of Building Committee, Västervik Municipality and Sustainabilty Coach, Västervik Bostads

The project fits to the smart city idea. New IT solutions provide excellent tools that play an important role in the city energy management.

Marek Stępa, Deputy Mayor of Gdynia

Every country has its own requirements and many already have experience with this topic. Cross-border exchange allows us to benefit from this experience and learn from each other.

Melf Grantz, Mayor of Bremerhaven

Elva is happy to participate in the Act Now project to share experiences and learn from our partners about efficienct energy management. This way we can bring the benefits of energy efficiency directly to our citizens.

Toomas Jarveoja, Mayor of Elva

The trend of this time is the efficiency and energy management associated with the use of economic resources and the preservation of the environment. We are proud that there are people in our team who follow these issues and try to move forward with the latest scientific advances by participating in research teams working on a new energy-efficient research solution. We, the Council of Gulbene Municipality, support these activities and value our employees' initiative and creative approach to addressing these issues.