Participation at the base of Echo Action

by Alessio Sciurpa

More than 1,700 families across Europe joined Echo Action, the European project under the program “Intelligent Energy Europe”, which has recently ended and coordinated by AGIRE (Agenzia Veneziana per l’Energia) and the Municipality of Venice, which involved many other European cities, including Berlin, London, Sintra (Portugal), Karlstad (Sweden), Bourgas (Bulgaria) and Kaunas (Lithuania).
On April 21 from 9.30 am in Venice, in the amazing setting of Palazzo Ducale, will be presented in a open meeting the project results, whose Italian partnership is composed of City of Venice, Bologna, Capannori, from Energy Agencies of Venice (AGIRE) and Lucca (ALERR), Banca Popolare Etica and MAG Venice.
An articulated and complex path, but good structured, that from October 2007, through a process of facilitation and support ,the families involved have undertaken in the first change in behavior and habits to reduce their consumption, then the implementation of solutions low cost, and finally, in the implementation of structural interventions for the achievement of which have been defined by means of subsidized financing. We spoke about it with the Director of AGIRE Edoardo Tognon and Alessio Ciacci, Assessor on the Environment, City of Capannori.

Director Tognon, can anticipate some of the achievements? Echo Action has been, from the beginning, a very ambitious project: seven countries involved, nine project cities, including Venice, London and Berlin, 154 “observers cities”, 1913 European households actively participating in working groups, 17 financial institutions and 157 companies.

The project is moving on a double track, can you explain why? Echo Action is not a “simple” project for the dissemination of this kind of culture to families. It is much more. First of all, the first track was to involve first-person families, dividing them into working groups, where the contribution of each one was of utmost importance. It is obvious that this has a value, not only in the dissemination of knowledge, but also at social level: the condominiums have finally had a chance to know each other, creating projects together, the neighbors have shared their views and their needs. The second track was set up by direct contact between the families, businesses and financial institutions. This contact was “mediated” by the city or by the local energy, which guaranteed the neutrality and impartiality. In addition, the families themselves, formed by the working groups have been able to speak with those involved in a critical, conscious of what they needed.

One of the aims of the project is a strategy for the dissemination of best practice outside the city directly involved, we want to emphasize this because unfortunately too often, this is neglected, can you explain how?
Activities in the Echo Action cities are now coming to an end. The project, however, is far from over. On April 21 will take place at Palazzo Ducale in Venice, a conference dedicated to Italian municipalities interested to becoming a “observers cities”, which will have the opportunity to receive materials and tools, produced by the project, to be able to replicate it on their territory. The final aim is to create a network of virtuous municipalities, that starting from Echo Action and through the exchange of know-how and mutual cooperation, developing projects in the promotion of energy conservation to the people, using sources of funding, national or European.

Assesor Ciacci, one of the cardinal points of the project was the dissemination of good practices respect energy savings between the families involved, have already been reported results in your town on this area?
The course was extremely positive and has seen a large and active participation, of over one hundred families in the meetings of training on issues of energy conservation and alternative energies. Besides, a great interest we have also found many housing interventions that have gone just to put into practice thanks to the thorough planning of technical experts. Many projects undertaken in recent years on reducing waste, waste energy, water consumption and to create a more sober and linked to local consumption, are feeding into our community a new culture and respect of the environment, that is always powered by excellent results in both economic and ecological terms.