Resumen de Assessing local governance experiments for building energy efficiency – the case of Malmö, Sweden
Local governments increasingly initiate measures addressing global sustainability challenges, so-called local governance experiments. But the knowledge about their actual outcome is limited. Responding to this gap, this paper provides an assessment of a local governance experiment in the form of a programme for sustainable buildings in Malmö, Sweden, focusing on its energy components. The study assesses the initiative by studying all new multi-residential units constructed in Malmö and analysing their performance along with programme applicability. Findings indicate the effectiveness of the programme, and further improved performance when the programme was combined with a dialogue process together with developers in a showcase area of Malmö. The majority of developers estimated the costs for following the programme as limited. The findings contradict the view that local initiatives addressing global sustainability challenges are merely rhetorical. However, the partly insufficient implementation risks undermining the trust-building function of local governance experimets.
