A project overview

ButK in a nutshell: Want to know about ButK in a few words? Click here to download the POSTER.

Click HERE to dowload a brief presentation of the ‘Bottom up to Kyoto' initiative.

According to the European Commission, by 2010 about 180 million tones of CO2, the equivalent annual output of around 50 power stations, could be prevented with new and energy-efficient products and appliances alone in Europe - around half of the EU s commitment under Kyoto.

However several obstacles currently prevent the take up of energy efficient products. A key obstacle is often a higher purchase price coupled with lack of understanding of the overall long term benefits (of the total cost of ownership). This is acutely true of ‘commodity products', particularly energy efficient lamps.

For the public sector and in particular municipal and regional areas - where lighting is a significant consumer of energy, electricity and thus public money - few national and European schemes are in operation that focus on maximising the total cost of ownership. The project ‘Bottom Up to Kyoto (BUtK)' aims:

to give municipalities from Europe's newer and future member states a helping hand to overcome the barriers to switching to energy efficient lighting technologies,
to help them make significant energy and cost savings in practice,
to provide a model to other European municipalities in the same predicament,
to assist Europe to meet its Kyoto targets starting at a local level i.e. from the bottom-up!

Over 36 months the BUtK pilot project has assisted 5 municipalities from 5 new EU member states (Voru in Estonia; Riga in Latvia; Raciechowice in Poland; Cluj in Romania, and Slovenska-Bistrica in Slovenia) to address the market barriers for public lighting. Step by step, with support from an expert partnership, BUtK has contributed to:

Analyse the current consumption of CO2 per capita in six municipalities.
Identify the potential savings in each municipality (in terms of CO2 and costs) from switching to energy efficient public lighting systems.
Help the selected municipalities assess the technical and economical feasibility of the proposed energy saving solutions.
Take the municipalities through the process of identifying energy services companies (ESCOs).
Help them secure the support of the ESCOs and prepare energy performance contracts.
Provide and implement tailor made solutions for each municipality through lighting strategies designed at local level.
Wide dissemination of the results and best practice.

The results are quantifiable and transferable, both in the short and in the medium and long term:

Short, medium and long term CO2 emission reductions.
A financial return on investments.
A removal of the market barriers to energy efficient lighting technology in the specific municipalities.
Medium and long term solutions for municipalities that can be replicated in the future to all lighting procurement and other energy efficient products.
An increased penetration of energy efficient lighting into the market in the participating member states.
Wide dissemination and awareness activities will ensure that the results inform and mobilise municipalities throughout the participating member states of the value of energy efficient lighting.
A greater market for energy services in Europe.
Preparation of the market for the forthcoming implementing measures on street and office lighting under the ‘EuP Directive' and the obligations under the ‘Energy Services Directive'.
Intelligence for future innovations for the lamp industry.