Abstract

Public Private Partnership initiatives and models are proven, scalable and internationally-recognized procurement methods for reducing the operating costs and improve environmental quality of public bodies. However, there are still barriers to overcome. Local communities’ engagement, lack of technical knowledge and financing constraints are just some topics that still need reliable solutions. The governance model that is adopted for the “Chieti Towards 2020” Project, which was funded under the European Local Energy Assistance in the 2012-2014 period, try to operate a "glocal" synthesis between local instances and global issues. A mixed bottom-to-top and top-to-bottom approach involves local communities’ trying to address requirements through centralized, high-level management and coordination activities. To date, the most relevant Project outcomes consist of 87 municipalities involved, a structured database of energy audit and data about 144 buildings and about 46,000 public light points. Moreover, an effective engagement of public and private stakeholders lays the foundation for a strong Energy Performance Contract framework able to leverage financing based on minimum guaranteed energy savings of 20% in respect to baseline values.