Municipalities: 7 Steps to a Sustainable Community

Getting Started: Understanding Sustainability

There are two key terms to keep in mind when municipal governments are planning to achieve economic and environmental sustainability. From these definitions, it is easy to see why many municipalities have goals to achieve and maintain economic and environmental sustainability.

Economic Sustainability: “… practices that support long-term economic growth without negatively impacting social, environmental, and cultural aspects of the community.”

Environmental Sustainability: “… to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations.”

At Energy Sciences, we work with municipalities and businesses to design and implement energy efficiency projects that achieve sustainability goals. By focusing on sustainability, municipalities can help all aspects of the community thrive: the people, the budget, and the environment.

An Energy Concierge

The world around us is changing. We see changes in our community, our businesses, our state, even our climate. Energy is playing a prominent role in these changes as its use and its cost are impacted. Many will only react to these changes, just trying to keep up—or catch up. Together, we can do more. We can prepare for the future with proactive energy management.

At Energy Sciences, we act as an energy concierge; a trusted advisor, and a dependable resource. Our team of certified and degreed energy professionals understands energy usage, energy policy, and the energy industry. We put that knowledge to work designing and implementing energy efficiency programs that help communities thrive.

By evaluating your facilities’ unique needs, we work with you to utilize grant money, utility incentive programs, and new and existing technology. Together, we achieve savings, comfort, productivity, and sustainability, all helping you fully understand and implement meaningful and effective energy efficiency measures.

How It’s Done: The 7 Steps for Sustainable Success

Step 1: Let’s talk
At Energy Sciences, we are here to ask questions, listen, understand, and guide you. An understanding of your municipality’s needs and vision sets the process in motion.

Step 2: Benchmarking
Benchmarking allows us to get a full picture and understand how your municipality’s facilities and systems operate. By doing this, we can identify and target areas we can enhance and evaluate success after implementation.

Step 3: Set Goals
Setting specific economic, comfort, and efficiency goals is essential. Without goals, it is hard to identify the actions necessary for success. More importantly, understanding and documenting your unique needs and goals allows the Energy Sciences team to tailor an approach to your goals.

Step 4: Create an Action Plan
Here is where benchmarking and goals come together. Now that the goals have been well defined, the Energy Sciences team produces a practical and achievable action plan—a clear roadmap that brings your goals and available resources together.

Step 5: Implement the Action Plan
Together, we implement a tailored action plan (such as facility assessments, retro-commissioning, lighting, heating, cooling, and control system adjustments and upgrades) to achieve your goals.

Step 6: Evaluate Your Progress
Comparing results to the benchmarks set early in the process allows our team to evaluate the success of achieving and exceeding goals. We utilize comprehensive data and metrics to track progress and recognize opportunities for future advancements.

Step 7: Recognize Your Achievements
Recognizing achievements is a necessary component in the success of the 7-step framework. Don’t forget to tell your community by sharing your success story about realized savings and associated community benefits, including financial advantages and environmental impact of energy efficiency. This can be done through the media, events, signage, and more.

Let’s Talk!

At Energy Sciences, we believe connection is the first step towards action. Let’s talk about what we do and how we can meet your municipality’s goals for a more sustainable community.