The annual energy, water and waste cost for Geislingen municipality in Germany was approximately 1,700,000 Euro prior to the commencement of their staff training and engagement project. The project involved working across 80 facilities in the City of Geislingen, including Town halls, Public Administration buildings, fire station, schools, municipality owned gyms etc. Energy teams were created and energy managers were elected for the supervision of various areas of energy management (e.g. room temperatures, lighting, thermostatic valves etc.). Energy saving activities were incentivised through an annual competition with category winners for the best school, best project work and best caretaker. An internet based electronic management system with automatic data collection was installed which helped highlight areas of excessive energy use and measure savings (Intelligent Energy Europe, 2014).
As a result of Gielingen’s energy saving project the following reductions in energy consumption were achieved (EC Directorate General for Energy and Transport, 2014):
- 1st Year: savings of 8% of the total energy costs (approx. 140,000 Euros)
- 2nd Year: savings of 12% of the total energy costs (approx. 200,000 Euros)