In response to the increasingly urgent climate change challenge, the European Commission is promoting several climate and energy targets with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonising the economy. However, the current pace and scale of change is insufficient to achieve the necessary sustainability transitions in energy systems; there is an increasing realisation that meeting energy targets is highly dependent on several complex aspects of final energy consumption patterns or energy demand. Increasingly, households are seen as playing a role in energy transitions – which implies challenging social norms and habits around energy usage in the home.
This Fall and as part of an innovative pan-European research initiative to achieve a greater understanding of the social and cultural influences on energy consumption, the ENERGISE consortium – funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme – is launching Energy Living Labs to develop, test and assess options for a bottom-up transformation of energy use in households and communities across Europe. Based on an assessment of over 1,000 European sustainable energy initiatives and consulting with stakeholders, two Energy Living Labs have been co-designed, involving both individual and collective approaches among households in 8 countries. The ENERGISE team has now launched the Living Labs, which will involve more than 300 households across Europe towards understanding the role of the social norms, skills, competencies, materials and infrastructures tied up with our daily energy use, related to two specific areas: cleanliness (laundry) and thermal comfort (heating) in the home.
Through deliberations and exchanges with the ENERGISE research teams and implementation partners, households set out on a journey to better understand and challenge their energy use, towards reducing overall energy consumption. To further facilitate this process, researchers will install energy meters, thermo-loggers, and thermometers in participating homes, but most importantly will invite
households to engage with "challenge kits" including insights and objects that have been carefully selected to stimulate reflection and support a shift in habits in relation to indoor comfort and clothing cleanliness.
ENERGISE Living Labs will conclude in early December 2018 with a debriefing period, followed by a second debrief with households in the Spring. The main results will be available in 2019 and will include comparative assessments across the Living Labs in 8 countries, with some insights on the difference between individual and collective approaches when it comes to changing energy-intensive habits. The emphasis of the results will not be on energy saved as much as on describing how and in what way the Energy Living Labs served to challenge norms and routines around heating and laundry.
In several countries, ENERGISE partners will organize events to share the results and outcomes of the Living Labs, as well as to provide an opportunity for participating households and interested stakeholders to meet and exchange information. Please stay in touch with us to learn about these opportunities and the outcome of researchers and households working together towards the low-carbon energy transition.
IF YOU WISH TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ENERGISE LIVING LABS, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!
You can learn about the ENERGISE Living Labs in general by visiting our website at http://energise-project.eu/node/1239
To learn about the 8 local ENERGISE Living Labs please visit the country pages of the ENERGISE project: http://energise-project.eu/
To learn more about the background of developing the ENERGISE Living Labs please read our related deliverables at http://energise-project.eu/deliverables
CONTACT
Press: Edina Vadovics, GreenDependent Institute, Hungary, edina@greendependent.org
More information about the Living Labs in general:
Julia Backhaus, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, energise@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Project coordinator:
Frances Fahy, National University of Ireland, Galway, frances.fahy@nuigalway.ie
ENERGISE
o ENERGISE stands for European Network for Research, Good Practice and Innovation for Sustainable Energy
o Coordinated by the National University of Ireland, Galway
o Funded by the European Union's Horizon2020 programme
o Web: http://www.energise-project.eu/, Email: info@energise-project.eu
The press release can be downloaded from HERE.