Four Latvian municipalities (Bauska, Ķegums, Saldus and Tukums) are participating in Energy saving competition. Altogether energy teams from 15 buildings are participating to reduce their energy consumption. As in all other C4S countries, also in Latvia in each building an energy team was created to support the change of the behaviour by the users of the building.

At the beginning of September, a motivational workshop for the energy teams was organised. Event included lectures and discussions on team building and how to motivate other energy users. Energy teams shared their barriers and challenges that they had faced, and different tips and tricks were analysed how to overcome these barriers. Participants were active, ready to share their experience and inspire others, as most of them face similar challenges.  

To motivate participants to share their experience with wider public first challenge was organized in the end of May. The task of the challenge was to create and publish on social media three short publications (videos, tweets etc.) how energy team saves energy in their building. The first three winners were teams who reached the largest audience (likes and shares were counted). Second challenge was launched in the end of October.

Most of the participating buildings have reached significant energy savings, which proves how large is the impact of user behaviour on energy performance.

All energy teams continue working and motivating their colleagues and other energy users in their buildings to reach higher savings. Many members of the energy teams have come to an understanding that reducing energy consumption does not necessarily require reduction of comfort level. It helps to reduce also resistance of other colleagues, and to communicate the measures in a more positive manner.

EnMS in Municipalities
All four municipalities have already implemented energy management system and received ISO 50001:2018 certificates. The boundaries of the EnMS in each municipality contain three main sectors: public buildings (the number of buildings varies from the size of the LA, e.g. from 35 in Kegums to 100 in Saldus), public lighting and municipal fleet. Energy managers of the municipalities admit that implementation of energy management system has been cost efficient measure to raise the awareness and understanding in the LAs and offers clear figures how much we actually consume and pay for energy on monthly basis and how much of it is wasted.