Continual monitoring of buildings’ performance
Background
Lviv with a population of 735,000 is a major city in western Ukraine. Historically, it was one of the main cultural and scientific centres of Europe. Today it is considered as one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine.
The city has many industries and institutions of higher education. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
UNESCO gave the following reasons for its selection:
• In its urban fabric and its architecture, Lviv is an outstanding example of the fusion of the architectural and artistic traditions of eastern Europe with those of Italy and Germany.
• The political and commercial role of Lviv attracted to it a number of ethnic groups with different cultural and religious traditions, who established separate yet interdependent communities within the city, evidence for which is still discernible in the modern townscape.
Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2006.
Building details
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Type of building
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Professional schools, general schools, kindergartens, social cultural buildings, administrative buildings, health centres. |
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Year built/ Floor area/ Operating hours
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From 1860 till1996 year/ 1,2325,2 square meters/ some work half of day some around-o-clock. |
Project
description
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Aim
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• Establishing monthly monitoring of energy consumption and daily monitoring of in-door thermal comfort in all public buildings in Lviv. • Communicating the results to the Mayor of the city and to the media in order to lobby for building with better environmental performances. _ |
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Key points
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Until now, the City of Lviv has hung up 1063 Display® posters in 362 buildings! All types of buildings are concerned. For the City Council, all of them have the same importance and should improve their environmental performance. The city initially chose to “display” the performances for 2006, 2007, 2008 and now in 2009 new posters are available thanks to a thorough monitoring system. The posters are visible to the public in order to make them more aware of energy and water issues and this is backed up with press conferences in close collaboration with the city’s Mayor. _
During its quarterly press conferences, subjects such as energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings are discussed. The objectives are to achieve an effective and rational use of energy resources in Lviv’s public buildings. Another project that Lviv launched is the energy monitoring in multi-residential buildings managed by municipal housing maintenance companies. In this project energy managers from all administrative levels and of the communal enterprises were involved.
Creative and helpful tools were designed, like the distribution of information about the cost of energy consumption for a 1 m2 area. With these initiatives the consumption of energy is diminishing. A comparison of consumption figures for 347 buildings between 2006 and 2008 shows an improvement of 12%. The knowledge of the media, citizens and buildings users concerning the intelligent use of energy resources in buildings is improving; and as a result the use of heat, natural gas, electricity, cold and hot water is becoming more efficient.
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Reason for inclusion as Shining Example
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Lviv’s efforts in a continuous communication strategy should serve as an example. Its energy efficiency plan is an integral project where the policies and actions that take place, follow the same line. Thus, politicians, citizens, energy managers and companies are learning together and working in a team!
With an intensive communication campaign, displaying each year the annual performance of its buildings, it reminds everybody that climate change is a current and continuing issue.
All these important achievements have been obtained with creativity, a positive attitude and especially with a low budget (1300 €). This is important to remember especially in these financially trying times the cost of communication should not be an obstacle. In order to support all the initiatives 10 000 stickers about good housekeeping recommendations were produced. |
Costs &
Benefits
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Costs &
funding
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The budget available in 2008 for launching is communication campaign has been around 1300 €. |
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Benefits
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In meetings with directors and staff of each building, the responsibilities are divided and the commitment to achieve a class “A” shared.
By inviting the media and informing them, stronger tools of communications are used.
And by pasting stickers in key spots, displaying poster year by year, measuring buildings performance every month, a deep awareness value is instilled in the citizens.
After all of that, clear financial benefits have been attained via the reduction of energy bills. |
Partners details
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Partners & Roles
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Energy managers, staff and building users are the most important partners in this campaign; they are the key players in the success that has been achieved.
But also, the collaboration with the Association of Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine was very helpful. As well as Software development company “IT-Management” which contributed with an "Energy plan" software training adjusted to the city’s needs. |
Recommendations
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Achievements
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As part of the discussion taken place between the directors and the staff of each building concerning the energy and water performance, an action plan for no-costs and low-costs improvements was set up; taking into consideration all the ideas proposed. By the efficient use of energy use, such as heat, natural gas, electricity, cold and hot water, significant savings in energy bills were observed from 2006 to 2008. Being these around 88 124 529 UAH or 8 305 799,2 per year. |
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Lessons Learned
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Lviv City Council has shown that with a continual and intensive local communication campaign, important results can be achieved. No matter how big or small the budget available. The interesting thing is that taking good advantage of existing Display tools, applying them in any building and showing the results to the people involved, a high general commitment can be achieved.
The initiative of inviting the press quarterly to know the actions carried out and being done and the status of the buildings performance is a clear sign of its long term commitment. |
Useful info
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To know more
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Organisation
name
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Lviv City Council |
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Contact
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Mariana Bokhonko |
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Phone
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+380322975857 |
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Fax
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+380322720586 |
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Email
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bokhonko@city-adm.lviv.ua |
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