Agenda 21 work in Koege Municipality
Agenda 21 Center: The Green House
The project is a result of the municipality’s Agenda 21 work. The municipality had developed a local Agenda 21 centre (’The green house’) which interacted with the local Agenda 21 committee involving politicians from the municipality's committees and local organizations. This design gave the center the opportunity to develop a local environmental professional competence and take independent initiatives, and via the Agenda 21 committee initiatives the centre could be anchored in the municipality and local stakeholders. The center has had a decisive role in all phases of the project Future Single Family Houses: from idea, development of project / external support, management of the project and evaluation.
In carrying out this role it has been important that the center has been able to involve other parts of its activities, including the Energy Services that are part of The Green House. It has been essential that a local capacity building has evolved around the Agenda 21 centre, both prior to and parallel with the project..
The municipality has in its overall policy supported work on sustainable construction, specifically expressed in the Agenda 21 strategy and in its disposition on land, including the development of a local plan for the Herfolge area formulated with an overall sustainability objective.
Local options in use
The municipality has used several different options:
Role as a land owner: The municipality has used its role as landowner in partitioning to establish requirements that go beyond what is possible in the local plans. The requirement for low energy housing and the Swan-label were registered in terms of the sale of land. The municipality has actively made standard requirements for construction.
Local plan work: In preparation of the local plan for the area plans, the construction sector and other stakeholders were involved to ensure an optimal interaction with the demonstration project (for instance, it was made possible to build in two levels with concern to the energy economy and connection to natural gas was made voluntary)
The Swan-label: Application of the Swan-label gave the municipality the opportunity in a simple way to secure environmental and health related quality in constructions. The development of requirements and verifications was carried out by Ecolabelling Denmark. Simultaneously, the project provided Ecolabelling Denmark with an opportunity to implement the Swan-label and provide a basis of experience for its development (The current requirements are to be revised in 2010).
Cooperation with knowledge institutions: From its early beginning, the project has involved external knowledge institutions in the form of the Danish Building Research Institute and the Center for Urban Ecology in developing the idea and programme.
Integrated Agenda 21 and plan strategy
As a result of the Herfolge project, Koge municipality decided to integrate environmental, health and energy concerns into the development of the area by Koge station, and Sondre Harbour. In Koge municipality’s proposal for an integrated Agenda 21 and plan strategy for 2008-12 environmentally integrated buildings is maintained as a parameter for municipal construction and renovation work. It states that the municipal buildings and renovations are to be carried out with user involvement, with energy and environmentally friendly principles, with the lowest energy consumption possible and that the municipal buildings must be seen as lighthouses - architecturally as well as energy wise and environmentally. There are a number of communal building plots which, according to a reasonably ambitious expansion plan, is to be sold attached with Life Cycle Costing evaluation models referring to investments in energy (model from Stenlose Municipality).