Municipal assistance to local businesses for prioritazing energy projects and sharing knowledge

By project DETOCS

Published on 19 February 2025

Greece

Kriti

Hersonissos

About this good practice

According to Greek legislation framework regarding energy saving and buildings energy efficiency, the Tourism sector was obliged to renovate a minimum percentage of their building stock. However, the combination of the vast information related to energy technologies along with the wide bandwidth of their cost and the insularity of Crete (with all the pros and against of this) led the sector to delays.
Acknowledging this obstacle, Hersonissos Municipality cooperated closely with hotel owners and operated as an assistant and a mediator to succeed both the local tourism sector’s goals but also to reach the achievement of its’ SEAP’s targets.
Employees from the technical and environmental department assisted the hotels to prioritize their energy efficiency projects to accelerate their renovation process. By adapting and implementing our recommendations they managed to achieve a mitigation on their energy cost and at the same time, they contributed to the achievement of the municipality’s SEAP goals.

Expert opinion

With the EU committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, all sectors of the economy will need to play a role in reducing their carbon emissions. Municipalities and regions can play a key role by enable access to expertise for development and implementation of new projects, as done in Hersonissos, providing technical guidance, facilitating access to funding, and disseminating best practices. Other regions can draw lessons from this practice on the need to establish partnerships with the private sector, to provide tailored support, and to share knowledge. The impact is impressive, demonstrating ghe benefits of the approach.

Simon Hunkin

Works at Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform

Resources needed

Personnel / Technical Staff from Municipality’s Technical and Environmental Department for disseminating the acquired knowledge and presenting good practices both local and from EU countries.

Evidence of success

Through the cooperation of the municipality with hotel owners, a reduction of 212,119.00 tn CO2/year was achieved by the hotels and a total of 25.8% for the entire municipality area (according to the submitted SEAP). Nowadays there are over 366 hotels in the area that create strong ground for the Municipality’s future transformation, aligned with the National Regional Energy Goals.

Potential for learning or transfer

When local stakeholders and local authorities work together, a productive and effective environment is created. Knowledge and experience are exchanged to overcome financial barriers related to the development of the necessary infrastructure and the accomplishment of the national NECP goals through the creation of a Renewable Energy Community which will reduce its members’ energy cost along with their footprint.
It is easier to achieve a proper bottom-up analysis that would genuinely meet the demands of all participants if information and guidance on pertinent funding and finance sources for local energy and climate projects is shared and disseminated. Also, the sustainability of the practice will be fueled by the development of the active REC which plans in the near future to extend an invitation to other municipalities and local business, creating thus a fruitful ground for adapting to future challenges.