Methodology
The eea methodology has proven successful in 30 years of implementation in the various member states. Through a bottom-up approach, national/regional eea offices give regular feedbacks and inputs for adaptations to the Association European Energy Award on the process, tools and indicators, based on their direct work with the local governments. Through this, the eea methodology is continually improved according to the changing needs of the local governments.
eea-Management-Tool
The eea-Management-Tool (EMT) is the online processing instrument of the catalogue of measures for all participating municipalities.
The EMT offers local governments the following benefits:
- Overview of all of the local government’s past, current and planned energy and climate activities
- Ideas for future energy and climate activities
- Monitoring of ongoing performance improvements:
- Automatic generation of progress reports
- Automatic generation of diagrams illustrating the local government’s strengths and weaknesses and development
- Central management of all relevant documentation
- Concurrent processing by internal staff and external advisors
Indicators
Within the framework of the European Energy Award quantitative and qualitative indicators are used. These provide the basis for assessing the current status and the development of the local governments in the various areas of activity (see measures).
Qualitative Indicators
The eea works for its international benchmark with a system of around 80 qualitative indicators. To enable a fair benchmark they are relative to the scope of action of every local government.
Quantitative Indicators
The European Energy Award Management Tool (EMT) is also used to collect information on specific energy and climate indicators, for example a local government’s CO2 emissions or total energy consumption, as well as less aggregated indicators such as the number of registered cars and the portion of green power in the total power consumption.
The collection of indicators within the EMT offers local governments the following benefits:
- Overview of all of the local government’s key energy and climate policy indicators
- Automatic generation of diagrams on the development of these indicators
- International comparability of indicators (as the same set of indicators is used internationally)
National tools
The national European Energy Award programmes are embedded in broader national energy and climate protection policy programmes. These programmes offer a wide range of additional tools for the implementation of energy and climate protection activities to the municipalities. Among many others these may include:
- Tool to monitor the energy consumptions
- Examples of procurement guidelines, issuing of innovative construction permits
- Communication toolbox for the integration of stakeholders
- and many more
For more information on national tools contact your national European Energy Award office.