The Allgäu Energy & Environment Center (eza!) is a non-profit organization founded by Allgäu municipalities, companies and initiatives to promote energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies. The motto of eza! is: “Answers to energy questions”.

eza! offers a wide range of services, including public relations and event organization, energy consulting, further training for specialists and support for local and regional energy and climate policy.

The heart of eza!’s work is energy consulting. In cooperation with the Bavarian Consumer Advice Center, independent experts and the municipalities, eza! provides free information to the citizens of the Allgäu region.

Over 130 companies from the construction and energy sector – including architectural firms, construction companies and craft businesses – are part of the eza! partner network. Each partner undertakes to train its own energy specialists and to implement the quality assurance system offered by eza!

In addition, eza! is an established educational institution for experts in the field of energy and construction and has been offering courses and seminars for over 20 years.

eza! is also heavily involved in the creation of municipal and regional energy and climate protection concepts – for cities, municipalities and districts in the Allgäu region. For the implementation of these concepts, eza! offers the European Energy Award as a management system for municipal climate protection policy.

Another area of activity is energy management for municipal buildings. This includes energy monitoring, training janitors, regular optimization of technical systems (heating, cooling, ventilation) and annual consumption reports. This catalog of measures usually enables cost-effective or even cost-neutral improvements in energy efficiency. eza! currently manages more than 200 buildings.

The eza! house in Kempten serves as a demonstration, consulting and training center. It was opened in 2002 and converted from a former residential building into a passive house to ideally support the work of eza!

eza! currently employs around 40 people, including administrative support. The team brings expertise from scientific, technical, economic and social science disciplines.

Role in the project

eza! is leading Work Package 5—Training and Continuing Education—throughout the project period. The main objective of this work package is for the partners to provide training and continuing education to the target groups—plumbers, energy consultants, and planners—on various topics and at varying levels of depth throughout the project period. Based on the organization and design of the training activities, eza! is responsible for the training of all three target groups through lectures and courses. In addition, eza! is tasked with evaluating and revising the courses conducted.

In addition, eza! supports the project partners in developing the training materials (WP 3 and 4) and leverages its broad client base and partner network for their dissemination (WP 6).