Many of the organisations that have successfully implemented NZ solutions identified the importance of having a forum which focused on energy and carbon. A number of organisations had established such forums as part of the PPP management process. For example, one local Authority's schools have established an energy forum involving all of the PPP partners which meets to discuss energy saving opportunities. Other public bodies also have energy forums in place, and these are recognised as helping support energy savings actions including approaches such as proof of concept before wider roll out of initiatives. This also provides an open forum to discuss how any derived savings can be addressed through contractual mechanisms.
It is worth noting that the establishment of such forums indicates a maturity to the relationship between the PPP partners and the maturity of these relationships goes a long way to finding solutions to which all can agree. The forums also allow for an exchange of information drawing in collective experience of measures that have been successful in other settings.
This recognised communication forum can be especially crucial where the implementation of NZ solutions is reliant on external factors such as timescale constraints or funding caps where the clear communication of such challenges can aid a strong buy-in of all parties to find solutions to meeting such constraints.
The structure of PPP agreements can result in additional challenges to the implementation of NZ objectives within the PPP estates whether through the imposition of contractual provisions such as Change Procedures or achieving specific timescales due to funding constraints. A number of existing projects have successfully implemented energy efficiency and in doing so have faced and found solutions to various challenges along the way, often through open discussion in their energy forums.