The ISO 50001 Energy Management System Implementation good practice by Donegal County Council (Ireland), has featured in the 'Governance Change for Energy Efficiency in Buildings', a Policy Brief from the Policy Learning Platform on Low-carbon economy.
ISO 50001 enables organisations to use energy more efficiently by developing an energy management system, which involves developing an energy policy, setting targets and designing action plans. The County Council of Donegal (stakeholder in the CLEAN project) established an energy management system to ISO 50001 standard for establishing where energy consumption was being used in the public sector, with the main areas being street lighting, road transport and public buildings. Energy indicators and an action plan were produced, identifying projects with significant potential for energy reduction. The Action Plan led to a number of activities, including the installation of LEDs for street lighting, implementation of fleet management systems to monitor the fuel efficiency of public vehicles, insulation of public buildings, and the replacement of inefficient vehicles. Outside of these physical investments, a 5-10% reduction in energy use was achieved through improving behaviour, including energy awareness campaigns to highlight inefficient energy use and promote alternative behaviour, appointing energy teams in each department, and adjusting the parameters and timings of building management systems so that ventilation, heating and lighting systems were turned on only when necessary.
View the Policy Brief in full here or learn more about the Good Practice here.
