Almada - Ayent - Bielsko-Biala - Bristol - Lausanne - Leicester - Milton-Keynes - Saarbrücken

A successful awareness-raising campaign!

The municipality of Almada wanted to anticipate the implementation of the 2002/91/EC European Directive in Portugal by means of the Display Campaign. In June 2004, the local authority put up a poster at the Pragal primary school, then presented the campaign at a national meeting of local energy agencies and published a paper in the national magazine "Municipalities and Cities". Since then, 19 buildings have been assessed and 5 posters displayed, mainly in schools.

What is remarkable in these initiatives is the commitment of the municipality towards promoting more energy-conscious behaviour among the general public. The objective of the City Council is to raise awareness of public building performance among building users by displaying information on their energy and water consumption. This has led to improvements in the organisation of technical data, a necessary step in any building assessment process.

The project has aroused the interest of both building users and the general public. Displaying building performances on A2 size posters has led a number of people to reflect on ways of improving such results, especially children, who reproduce what they have learnt at school at home. Everyone at the local energy agency is actively involved and teaching staff in participating schools pass on information to the pupils and their families.

Pending implementation of the European Directive in Portugal, the municipality will broaden the Display Campaign by setting it in a national context. Posters will also be updated to provide yearly information on energy and water use, thus highlighting any changes in building users’ behaviour.