Reducing Energy Consumption in Households and Communities
ENERGISE is a European Union Horizon 2020 funded project.
Household energy use is stubbornly high across Europe. It's responsible for about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions, making it a key environmental concern.
Funding in this area tends to be focused on 'techno-centric' approaches to reducing energy consumption and policymakers often fail to acknowledge the importance of social and cultural contexts in energy use. How and why we use energy can vary greatly from country to country. In order for public policy to have maximum impact, a comprehensive understanding of social and cultural influences on the consumption practices of households and communities must be achieved.
Deepening our understanding of these underlying issues was the objective behind a three year project called ENERGISE (European Network for Research, Good Practice and Innovation for Sustainable Energy). The project was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme.
The overarching concept behind ENERGISE was that without a comprehensive understanding of how and why people use energy, public policy measures to reduce energy consumption at the individual or household level are less likely to succeed. Therefore, the project was about analysing everyday lifestyles and understanding how energy is tied up into our routine practices and daily activities.
Watch this video to gain an understanding of the aims of ENERGISE.
Project Process
ENERGISE was centred around the concept of 'Living Labs', using real-life households and communities as test sites to directly observe energy consumption in different contexts and in an authentic setting.
ENERGISE first catalogued more than 1000 existing or recent household and community energy-reduction initiatives from 30 European countries. These were then categorised according to how they understood the problem of unsustainable energy use and the proposed solutions. The four corresponding categories include "Changes in Technology", "Changes in Individual Behaviour", "Changes in Everyday Life Situations" and "Changes in Complex Interactions". Researchers found that technological solutions dominated sustainable energy initiatives, and behaviour change initiatives targeted individuals rather than social change.
These learnings were then applied to the research carried out in the 'Living Labs'. 16 “Living Labs” in 8 countries were established with more than 300 households volunteering to take part. The households varied from families with young children to elderly people living alone, among others. The Living Labs were also established in both rural and urban areas, to get a holistic view of energy consumption in different countries and contexts.
In the first phase of the research, the local implementation team established a baseline for energy consumption, by measuring the household's energy use and their usual consumption habits. After this, households were encouraged to change their habits, in two domains: laundry and heating, and this was subsequently measured. Challenges included reducing the household’s indoor temperature to max 18 degrees and reducing laundry cycles by half.
Households were divided in two groups; one group took part in social events and focus groups with other participants and the others took on the challenge on an individual level. This was done to estimate whether social support had an effect on the rate of change. Change was measured through changes in practices including different elements of materials (washing machine. detergent etc.), skills (e.g. knowing how your machine works) and meanings (e.g. what did it mean for people to have to wear the same clothes two days in a row etc.)
The ENERGISE team collected data before, during and after the implementation of 16 Living Labs to anlayse how the participants coped with the challenges and determine how change came about. The findings would be instrumental in contributing to the design and assessment of future energy consumption initiatives across Europe.
Research Outcomes:
1. Addressing everyday practices and related ideas about ‘normality’ can make a valuable contribution to reducing household energy use.
2. Households can reduce indoor temperature settings in colder months by 1˚C without experiencing a reduction in thermal comfort.
3. Households can do one less cycle of laundry without being inconvenienced.
4. Challenges to conventional ways of keeping warm at home or keeping clothes clean can cause households to reflect on how they use energy.
5. Experimenting with other ways of keeping warm and keeping clothes clean provides new strategies for, and ideas about, keeping clean and comfortable.
6. Disruption to energy-consumption patterns can provoke discussion within and beyond the home about energy use practices. Discussions around, for example sustainable lifestyles, are not limited to the particular energy domains of central interest to an initiative or project.
7. Diverse policy, research and civil society actors can together generate and draw upon insights from energy consumption projects. This requires methodologies predicated upon unconventional ‘imaginaries’ of social science energy research (Genus et al, 2018; Jasanoff and Kim, 2009)
Reported Bedroom Temperatures by Country Before and During Challenge
Reported Bedroom Temperatures by Country Before and During Challenge
Stated weekly average laundry cycles by country, before, at the end of and 3 months after the challenge.
Stated weekly average laundry cycles by country, before, at the end of and 3 months after the challenge.
"Our results have generated exciting new insights into social and cultural influences on household energy use, as well as advancing conversations about how we use energy in daily life opening up pathways to advance ideas of energy sufficiency.”
The ENERGISE team have...
- Made over 500 Media Appearances and given in excess of 200 Conference Presentations.
- Published over 30 peer-reviewed publications and an edited book collection.
- Developed several additional projects that will further advance their concepts around sustainable energy use.
Across Europe...
- The University of Geneva was invited by a major utility provider in Western Switzerland to present results of ENERGISE. This public-service company is very interested in reducing energy usage among households and has expressed a keen interest in hearing results for Switzerland and the other participating countries.
- The ENERGISE team at Aalborg University and Roskilde Municipality, actively involved in the implementation of the ENERGISE Living Labs in Denmark, developed a children’s version of the Danish ELL results as a spin off project from ENERGISE.
- In Hungary, the GreenDependent team has started to integrate lessons learnt from the ENERGISE Living Labs into their E.ON EnergyNeighbourhoods programme where they work with households to reduce energy consumption, as well as into their Compete4SECAP H2020 project with municipalities.
Professor Frances Fahy and Dr. Gary Goggins presenting the ENERGISE project at the Ryan Institute Research Day, University of Galway
Professor Frances Fahy and Dr. Gary Goggins presenting the ENERGISE project at the Ryan Institute Research Day, University of Galway
ENERGISE at University of Galway
People
“The database and interactive map will be an invaluable resource for energy practitioners, researchers, community groups or anyone seeking good practice examples of energy initiatives from all over Europe", explained the project lead Prof Frances Fahy, Discipline of Geography, University of Galway.
Frances was joined by Dr Gary Goggins, a Research Fellow also from the Discipline of Geography who added: "The best thing about Galway is the people. They have the expertise to conduct an international project such as this as well as a strong reputation among international institutions."
University of Galway has the knowledge, experience and structures in place to lead these large-scale projects. The ENERGISE project team are also members of University of Galway's Ryan Institute the university's multi-disciplinary research institute for advancing sustainability and innovation impacts.
Professor Frances Fahy
Frances Fahy is Professor of Geography at the University of Galway. Frances is an environmental geographer and she has published more than > 75 publications including three edited volumes (published by Sage, 2013, Routledge, 2014, Palgrave 2019) and numerous peer reviewed articles in journals such as Global Environmental Change, Area, Energy Policy, and Journal of Consumer Policy. Prof Fahy has coordinated > 16 funded research projects and is the coordinator and lead of the Horizon 2020 project, ENERGISE ‘European Network for Research, Good Practice and Innovation for Sustainable Energy’.
Dr Gary Goggins
Dr Gary Goggins holds a PhD in Environmental Sociology and Sustainability Studies, an MA in Community Development and an undergraduate degree in Business Studies. His main research interests are in relation to sustainable transitions and individual and socio-material influences on consumption and production patterns. He is also concerned with how knowledge is communicated with policymakers, civil society and industry. His work has been published in several leading international peer-reviewed journals.
Sustaining our Planet and People
University of Galway is on a mission to support the transformational changes that are necessary for human society to steer itself towards sustainable development.
Through a collaborative approach and partnerships, our researchers are delivering research and innovations in areas such as climate action, clean energy, ocean, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, sustainable bio-economy and One Health.
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