# The Role of Public Administration in Sustainable Urban Development: Evidence from Italy
## 6 Discussion  
Particularly profitable for overcoming knowledge barriers, but also for reducing technical and economic information asymmetries, could be an enforcement of the obligations currently in force, and therefore, the appointment of an energy manager who, in addition to identifying the technological and organizational solutions that are more suitable for optimizing energy resources, able to interface and relate to service providers and energy efficiency solutions. The adoption of network-based approaches, that is to say, forms of collaboration, but also of aggregation among public administrations, for example, between small neighboring municipalities, could remove both financial obstacles--through the subdivision of transaction costs and the exchange of know-how and best practices currently available--and further limits the implementation of local development models based on the exploitation of endogenous energy, environmental, and socio-economic resources. There also seems to be an agreement in the literature that stakeholder engagement and participatory processes play a significant positive role in developing and implementing sustainability policies at the local level [39, 40, 41, 42, 43]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [44] have found that the cities most committed to sustainability tend to be more participatory places. The theoretical perspective of [PERSON] et al. [45]. is based on extant research suggesting that engaging institutional actors and stakeholders is important to generate support for local environmental sustainability initiatives. A decision-making process that is judicious and that correctly involves stakeholders undergirds the decision with popular acceptability and administrative authority [46], and the results in a more responsible and accountable administration [47]. Moreover, participation grows the probability of the stakeholder accepting the decision [48]. It improves social learning [49], increases project design [50], supports and integrates various interests and opinions [51], and therefore, simplifies project implementation [52]. Understanding attitudes and perceptions of stakeholders is important to decision making and comprehensive environmental policy [53]. At the national level, but also at the Community level, multiple tools have been defined and funds have been allocated to encourage energy efficiency measures in the PA. Among these it is worth mentioning the main projects such as the European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA), the European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF), and the Italian Kyoto Fund. ELENA is a program that aims to provide assistance to local governments for the development of investment programs aimed at improving energy performance at the local level through the provision of grants. EEEF is an innovative public-private partnership that supports, through the disbursement of contributions, small-scale investments made in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Recent research shows that only international collaboration and a networked system of stakeholder interaction can meet the needs of the new development agenda. In more and more countries, governments are forming effective partnerships and strategic alliances with private sector and civil society organizations to confront challenges the public sector cannot tackle alone [54]. However, in the future, we hope for a simplification of the bureaucratic procedure for obtaining funds, at the same time promoting the mechanisms currently in force and implementing innovative methods for obtaining financial resources already in use in other countries. Consider the model of the state of Delaware (USA), introduced in 2011, consisting in the establishment of a private company with public capital, the Sustainable Energy Utility, which assists the PA in the energy audit of its buildings, in the selection of service providers and energy efficiency solutions, and in the related negotiation, as well as in the obtainment of the capital, by issuing a bond placed later on the stock market (NYSE).