Website: www.energytrophy.org

Case Study (320 Kb PDF)

Summary

The European Energy Trophy is an EU-wide competition for companies and public administrations for saving energy in office buildings. The Energy Trophy was organised and implemented by a consortium of 6 partners and started officially on 01.01.2004. The aim was to award the Energy Trophy to participants who saved the most energy in one office building in one year using cost-free measures only (i.e. behavioural changes such as turning off lights, turning down the heating etc. - no investments in new equipment or energy saving light bulbs etc.). With 38 participating companies and public administrations, the project was a success: 22 of the 38 participants were able to reduce their energy consumption and achieved energy savings of up to 30%. The main funders of the project were the European Commission in the framework of the SAVE II programme and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Results

The European Energy Trophy was an overwhelming success. One of Germany's largest banks, Dresdner Bank, in its headquarters in Berlin has reduced its energy consumption by about 19% and will thus save about €100,000 per year. This was achieved by simple measures such as adjusting warm water boilers in the toilets, optimising the air conditioning regulation and asking staff to turn off all office equipment at the end of the day. Other competition participants, like T-Com, Centrica, Ducati, 3M, E-Plus or EDF showed similar results, some even reductions of 28-30%.

Overall, 22 of the 38 participants were able to reduce their energy consumption between 0.5 and 30%. In the case of the other 16 participants, the energy consumption increased by between 1 and 14 %. The reasons for the increase were often related to internal changes such as hiring of new staff, but in some cases even the participants had no explanation for this. These increases in consumption would probably have been even higher without the measures introduced as a result of the Energy Trophy competition.

Considering the results of all 38 participants (i.e. even those whose consumption increased in the year of the competition), the average savings were 6.9%. Through these reductions, the project achieved the following energy, CO2 and cost savings during the project duration:

	Energy Savings	CO2 Reductions	Cost Savings
38 Participants	3.7 GWh	1,885 tonnes	205,000 €

Most of the participants of the Energy Trophy competition have confirmed that they will continue to implement the selected energy saving measures in their office buildings in the years to come. In addition, many participants plan to transfer the identified measures to other buildings under their management. Potentially, the project will therefore lead to the following energy, CO2 and cost savings, assuming that the participants continue implementing at least 80% of the energy saving measures:

	Energy Savings	CO2 Reductions	Cost Savings
after 5 years	14.8 GWh	7,540 tonnes	988,000 €
after 10 years	29.6 GWh	15,080 tonnes	1,640,000 €

The energy, CO2 and cost savings that were actually achieved were substantially above the original estimates of the project partners (by at least 50% compared to the estimates in the original work plan). Interestingly, the results in most cases exceeded the expectations of even the competition participants.

Many of the competition participants have confirmed that the joint effort to win the Energy Trophy had a positive effect on employee motivation and identification. In addition, the project received large publicity due to the innovative approach and the good results achieved. This has induced many other companies and public administrations to take the energy savings potentials linked to behavioural changes seriously and to act accordingly. Furthermore, the administrative framework for future European Energy Trophy competitions is established in order to hold a second, third and fourth etc. European Energy Trophy in the following years.