The American Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia (PKS) organized another cycle of free trainings “The role of managers and the local community in the program of energy renovation of residential buildings” with the aim of encouraging more efficient use of clean energy in construction and improving energy security and efficiency in existing buildings. The training is attended by organizers of professional management, managers of residential buildings, energy managers in local self-governments, as well as local self-government officials in charge of housing issues.
Using renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency are long-term goals that can be achieved faster with the help of trained managers and the local community, and as Milica Knežević, an expert in energy efficiency at PKS, pointed out, the first step is for managers to be educated on what energy rehabilitation is and what measures can be applied for its realization.
– Some managers have already started the implementation, but they need additional knowledge that they can get through these trainings in PKS. Some tasks they will be able to do themselves without costs for the housing community, and for some they will still have to hire experts, for example for the preparation of energy studies or some analyses, explained the representative of PKS.
She added that the manager’s role is to explain to the tenants the essence of the measures, how to improve the quality and comfort of housing with less energy consumption. He reminds that the trainings were done last year as well, as well as that it is necessary to massively apply energy rehabilitation measures where education plays an important role. Knežević pointed out that renovation of facades is among the first energy rehabilitation measures, because the biggest energy losses are precisely through the facade walls, and the measures also apply to carpentry, doors, windows, and roofs.
The president of the Association of Professional Managers of Belgrade, Bojan Nikolić, points out that managers continuously organize meetings with tenants, where they discuss the improvement of energy efficiency in residential communities, which benefits both citizens and the state. He explains that the managers are the bearers of specific projects, but that decisions on the implementation of measures are made by the tenants themselves, through the decisions of the housing association.
Jadranka Ilić, the energy manager for the municipality of Savski venac, said that this Belgrade municipality intensively participates in the implementation of energy measures implemented at the local level.
– We are participating in the renovation of the facade and carpentry, where we have achieved certain results, and the citizens are satisfied with what we have done so far. Our goal is for these works to be more frequent, but that depends not only on our municipality, but also on the choices of the citizens – emphasized Ilić. According to her, buildings that are in a bad condition are mostly helped to raise the standard of living in them to a higher level, and it is expected that in the future there will be more concrete projects and implementation of energy efficiency measures.
Director of USAID’s “Better Energy” project, Lena Bratić, pointed out that she is extremely satisfied with the continuation of cooperation with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce in the field of education of administrators and the local community in the program of energy rehabilitation of residential buildings. Bearing in mind that, according to the International Energy Agency, buildings account for approximately one third of the final energy consumption in the world, it is important to educate managers and citizens and offer them solutions and tools that can improve energy efficiency in their buildings.
Through training in PKS, participants acquire the necessary knowledge for identification, design and energy reconstruction of residential buildings, and are also informed about the possibilities of available financing models, sources of funds and procedures necessary for successful energy renovation and improvement of energy efficiency. The training also includes legal procedures for energy rehabilitation of buildings, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Serbia.
E2 portal
Source: www.e2.rs
