ESCO as Innovative Facilities Management in Danish Municipalities

Purpose: Increasing energy efficiency of existing buildings is high on the Facility Management (FM) agenda, therefore building owners and FM Managers need insight into a variety of organizational possibilities for energy renovation projects. This paper explores how contracts with Energy Service Companies (ESCO's) can foster innovative changes in the municipal FM-function, including dissemination of experiences gained from their ESCO-contracting to local building owners.
Theory: Theory of Public Innovation is used to see the new roles of local authorities in promoting energy renovations to building owners with a relatively limited FM-competence.
Design/methodology/approach: Since ESCO-contracting is relatively new in a Danish context; international experiences are investigated through literature review to establish a conceptual frame. The study is based on recent Danish and international surveys, literature studies on ESCO-initiatives and a case study of Kalundborg municipality combined with interviews with private FM-suppliers, energy consultants, ministries and municipalities.
Findings: The paper gives an overview of the current status of ESCO-initiatives in Danish municipalities. These first findings show that ESCO-contracting is a promising possibility to promote energy efficiency in municipal buildings and in many cases encourages municipalities to take innovative steps in disseminating experiences from ESCO-contracting to other areas, and thus overcoming barriers for introducing ESCO-initiatives in the private housing sector.
Originality/value: This paper adds to FM-research on how to make the existing building stock more attractive and energy efficient. It is the first publication from the project “Energy Service Concepts” carried out at the Danish Centre for Facilities Management (www.cfm.dtu.dk). Results have not been published before.