The campaign "Let's live warmer!" ("Dzīvo siltāk!") is a communication campaign developed to promote energy effiency of buildings in Latvia.
In spring 2009 the aid programme "Improvement of Heat Insulation of Multi - Appartment Residential Buildings" funded by the European Regional Development Fund was started. The aim of the programme was and still is the improvement of energy efficiency for housing in multi - appartment residential buildings ensuring the sustainability of housing stock and efficient utilization of energy resources. In order to inform people about the programme and encourage the housing insulation in Latvia, the campaign "Let"s live warmer!" has been developed.
The campaign was established basing on the cooperation memorandum signed in the 25th of February 2010 with additional signatures on 23rd of September 2010 and 22nd of September 2011.
The main aim of the memorandum is to ensure the availability of information on housing insulation issues. Additional aims are the following:
- To encourage cooperation between industry associations in order to ensure the flow of information about current industry promotion;
- To ensure the information about apartment house management;
- To ensure the information about EU funding for housing insulation;
- To give the information about benefits of insulation;
- To educate people about conditions providing qualitative insulation;
- To give the information about construction quality standards and technologies;
- To inform people about latest trends in housing insulation issues.
A number of conferences, seminars, workshops, discussions and publications on national, regional and local level were organized during 4.5 years of the campaign. Two-way communication was established through social networking, engaging in direct communication with citizens. The Ministry of Economics organised seminars, conferences and different discussions, participated in trade fairs and exhibitions. Total number of events from 2010 until 2014 – 198; more than 6 390 participants in person and more than 2 740 participants through online channels.
Success of the campaign can be measured with the steady increase in number of submitted project applications for funding. The number of submitted project applications in ERDF programme has increased from 117 in 2009 (when the campaign did not yet exist), to 170 in 2010 (when the campaign was started), to 470 in 2011 (highly attributable to the campaign, as taking the decision about renovation and preparation of project application can take up to 6 months), to 435 in 2012 (continuing results of the campaign) and 248 in 2013 (in 2013 project applications were be submitted only till 31 of July as well as the much higher density of discussions about the necessity and benefits of energy efficiency in the media and general public. Due to success of the campaign, program’s EU funding was increased fourfold – from 20 to 89 million EUR. More information here https://www.em.gov.lv/lv/es_fondi/dzivo_siltak/renoveto_eku_statistika/
Map of completed projects can be found here https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=zDrGv9JHde0k.k1y08oP1Ier4&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&dg=feature .
The EU Sustainable Energy Week 2012 is the occasion for the European Commission to reward the best projects of the year in the fields of energy efficiency, renewables and clean transport. The six outstanding projects, chosen from 224 entries from across Europe, offer ambitious and innovative examples in the area of energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and clean transport. Five projects took home a coveted prize in one of the five SEE categories. One of them was „Let’s Live Warmer” (Dzīvo siltāk). More information here http://www.eusew.eu/awards-competition/awards-archive/awards-winners-2013#communicating
Within the campaign the contest "The Best Energy Efficiency Building" has been regulary organized since 2011, assessing buildings renovated in the previous year. More information here www.energoefektivakaeka.lv
Blogs to follow the campaign are the following: