Portugal: an example of success in the dissemination of the European Code of Conduct for EPC
19. 03. 2015
Although the ESCO business in Portugal is still in the process of development and establishment, this country is already a success story in the dissemination of the European Code of Conduct for EPC developed within Transparense project.
Conferences, workshops, scientific articles or even press releases, surveys and the strong marketing tool "word of mouth" are the means of dissemination of excellence! The common goal is to promote this area of business and its benefits among the stakeholders (industry, large companies, banks, local authorities and managers/responsible for buildings).
These outreach initiatives have been effective in such a way that, on September, a national magazine dedicated to Energy Efficiency announced in its notice "Code of Conduct reinforces transparency in energy performance contracts", online, the final version of the European Code of Conduct for EPC as a good mechanism to increase transparency in this market.
Beyond these initiatives, Portugal is also making a strong bet on the establishment of partnerships with the major national organisations in the area of energy, as for example the Directorate General of Energy (DGEG) and ADENE (National Energy Agency), who also promised to disseminate the Code among the ESCOs registered in the National Registry Database for ESCOs qualification, in order to inform them about this voluntary Code of Conduct and the procedure to sign it. This is an important measure as some big ESCOs are reluctant to sign it because they fear it would be an additional administrative burden.
In this context, those responsible for the Transparense project in Portugal assume that the dissemination of European Code of Conduct for EPC of utmost importance as "the exchange of information, consultancy and training based on good practices can serve as balm to these (and other) obstacles".
