This page is a full repository of all learning documents, tools and templates published by the Act Now! project. While we recommend to use the Learning Platform via the five lessons, this page shall help to access the documents directly.
The Act Now! Manual and Guidelines
The essence of Act Now! is condensed in the Act Now! Manual and the four Guidelines for improving energy efficiency capacities in municipalities. Therefore, the lessons of this Learning Platform are built aroud these five domuments.
The Act Now! Manual
From SEAP to Investment
If you want to kickstart energy efficiency in your municipality, the Act Now! Manual is your starting point. It is the core document of the Act Now! Approach of capacity building for energy efficiency in the municipal building stock. It provides the foundation necessary to proceed with the aspects covered in the four Guidelines.
The Act Now! Guideline
Energy Efficiency Strategy for Municipal Buildings
This Guideline explains how to make a strategic approach to improve energy efficiency in municipalities. While this Manual focuses on the municipal capacities needed, the Guideline focuses on what a municipality should do in order to set up an energy efficiency strategy.
The Act Now! Guideline
Identification of Most Effective Energy Efficiency Measure
This Guideline provides assistance to municipalities struggling to make their first step. Assuming a SEAP, SECAP or other strategy document is already in place, the guideline helps picking the most effective energy efficiency measure among the many options on the table. Using a system of decision criteria, the guideline helps making a robust and accountable decision.
The Act Now! Guideline
Financing of Energy Efficiency Projects
This Guideline takes a closer look on the financial dimension of energy efficiency in municipalities. It provides introduction to the basic principles of financial considerations such as appraisal methods and financing options.
The Act Now! Guideline
Public Private Partnerships
This Guideline describes, how the municipality can unlock the vast energy efficiency potential of the local private sector. It explores the courses of action municipalities have in order to engage with private stakeholders. Following the idea of the customer journey, it proposes a step-by-step approach to successfully scale up private retrofit activities through public private partnerships.
Determine your Status Quo
The capacity building process with the Act Now! Approach requires thorough knowledge about the current status. The main tool uses for this purpose is a self-assessment questionnaire for municipalities:
Self-Assessment Questionnaire for Municipalities
Energy Management & Energy Strategies for Municipalities: State-of-the-Art Assessment
The questionnaire is thought to be completed by municipal administrative and operational staff in close cooperation with the energy department (energy working groups if existing) and finally approved by the municipal council.
The aim is to evaluate and understand their current situation, to identify areas of strength for building upon, and also to identify areas where improvement may be desirable or even necessary.
For further details how to use this questionnaire, see the Act Now! Manual, Chapter 3.1.
What are your lacking capacities?
With the results of the self-assessment questionnaire (see above) in place, you are now ready to identify the needs and capacity gaps specific to your municipality. In order to do so, the Act Now! project provides a set of Excel-based analysis tools to be used by your team:
SWOT Analysis and quantitative self-assessment tool for Local Authorities
The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis helps you to assess the gaps between your current status and the desired future capacities.
The quantitative self-assessment tool provides an in-depth evaluation of the energy efficiency capacities in your municipality and outputs suggestions for your capacity building schemes.
Both tools are implemented within one Excel-workbook considering requirements of the ISO 500001 energy management standard.
For further details how to use the tools, see the Act Now! Manual, Chapters 3.2 and 3.3, as well as the Act Now! Guideline „Energy Efficiency Strategy for Buildings“.
Download the tool (XLSX, 1.6 MB)
Download the tool in Finnish language
(XLSX, 1.6MB)
Create your own Capacity Building Scheme
Using the output of the SWOT Analysis and the capacity self-assessment tool (see above), you are now ready to set-up your own customized capacity building scheme, an action plan tailored to increase the energy efficiency capacities in your municipality.
Capacity Building Scheme Template
This is a simple template you could use to document your customized capacity building scheme.
Download the template
(XLSX, 1.2 MB)