SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL PROJECT “ENERGY EFFICIENCY WEEK 2023”

The Energy Efficiency Week 2023 began with a press briefing dedicated to the launch of the project. It was attended by the organizers and partners of the project, who spoke about:

  • The purpose and objectives of Energy Efficiency Week;
  • At what stage of implementing an energy-efficient economy is Ukraine currently?
  • What hinders and what accelerates the implementation of our country’s “green” policy;
  • What role does the state play in this process?
  • What is international donor aid?

The second large-scale event of the mixed format was the Conference “Energy-efficient diplomacy for the restoration of Ukraine”. The event consisted of two parts:
1) strategic plans and actions of the Parliament and the Government of Ukraine to introduce energy saving through the prism of Ukraine’s future accession to the EU;
2) presentation of state, international and commercial programs to support energy-efficient projects. Main theses of the speeches:

  • Ukraine will have to liberalize utility tariffs for the population in the future;
  • An effective mechanism for supporting vulnerable segments of the population is needed (subsidies, grants, compensation, etc.);
  • Reconstruction based on the principle of “making it better than it was”;
  • An approach to the use of energy sources based on the principle of “savings first”;
  • Accumulation of finances for energy-efficient solutions at the expense of the largest environmental polluters.

In total, about 120 participants attended the Conference live, about 150 viewers online, video archive, time codes of speeches and presentations are available at the link:

The third day of the Energy Efficiency Week brought together in a virtual space specialists from state institutions, local authorities and businesses who deal with the practical application of the principles of efficient use and saving of resources. This day was full of motivational speeches by people who understand from their own experience which tools and measures show effectiveness. So, the main theses that were voiced during the Energy Managers Forum:

  • Local authorities should not wait for instructions and guidelines from the central government, but should take care of issues of increasing the level of energy saving right now;
  • The main task of international donors is not only to financially support energy efficiency projects, but also to educate and train energy managers;
  • Data on utility consumption requires not only recording, but also regular analysis;
  • At the local level, energy managers constantly face the problems of a lack of information necessary for high-quality monitoring of energy costs;
  • There is also a shortage of highly qualified personnel and training programs in the field of energy management; traditionally, the functions of an energy manager are assigned as an additional burden to other specialists (mostly financial and logistical departments).

The total number of Forum participants was 340 people, there were no geographical restrictions: the event was attended by energy managers from the east and west, from the south and north, and from the center of Ukraine as well! The video recording (with time codes of the speeches) and presentations are available on the website via a direct link:

The fourth day of Energy Efficiency Week 2023 was held in the format of a Round Table on the topic: “BIM in Focus: Ways to Fund and Develop Training Programs”. This event brought together authorities, scientists, experts and business at one table to discuss further prospects for the implementation of BIM at the state level. The topic of the Round Table sparked a lively discussion among the participants, and the main theses are as follows:

  • Ukraine has become one of the European leaders in the implementation of BIM technologies in the construction industry;
  • This tool can simplify the work of government agencies in the process of approving project documentation;
  • VIM challenges corruption schemes and dishonest developers, and also eliminates the human factor in identifying design flaws;
  • It is now imperative to address the issue of state training programs for VIM specialists, as commercial courses and donor-funded training events are unable to meet the entire demand in this profession.

In total, 30 people attended the Round Table in person and about 120 online. The archived video recording is published on the website at the link:

And finally, the culmination of Energy Efficiency Week was the Strategic Session, during which the teams “customer” (i.e. the state), “education”, “donors” and “implementer” (i.e. business) created a realistic action plan for the development of energy-efficient “green” recovery in Ukraine. The task was not only to create an “ideal picture” of the future, but also worked out the problems of interaction of the four links of the process, their interdependence and productive cooperation. Currently, the process of transforming the “raw” material into a completely real Roadmap for the development of energy-efficient “green” construction in Ukraine is underway, which will be published later.

On behalf of the organizers and partners of the national project “Energy Efficiency Week 2023”, we express our sincere gratitude to our moderators – Yevhen Pavlyukovsky, Andriy Kulikov and Yulia Usenko! We are very grateful to our speakers – you filled this event with meaning and gave others an impetus to more decisive action! We thank you, our dear project participants, because it is for you that we join forces, create platforms for discussions and plan future events!

We hope that during the “Energy Efficiency Week 2024” we will hear about even more achievements, innovations, and examples of successful implementation of energy efficiency policies on the path to victory, peace, and prosperity of an independent European state of Ukraine!