energy action: a UK case study on addressing fuel poverty

Rachel Jones of the Energy Action program in the UK spoke in the afternoon at Covenant Capacity about some of the projects she has worked on related to energy, comfort, and health.  she talked about something scary that is a big problem in the UK that I had not heard about before her presentation.  one of the biggest issues in the region is "fuel poverty".  fuel poverty (or energy poverty, depending on the specifics of the issue and the country/ location) takes place when a person or family cannot afford to adequately heat the home.  in the UK the figure used as a starting point to determine fuel poverty is if it costs more than 10% of the household income to heat the home.  according to statistics, approximately 20% of the UK suffers from fuel poverty.  Jones explained that not just elderly people with lower incomes, but young people and even families with babies or small children are suffering from the high cost of heat.

not being able to heat the home is more than just a little problem, especially in places like the UK.  it leads to unhealthy and uncomfortable living and actually creates significant health problems and causes thousands of "excess winter deaths".  according to Jones, approximately 25,000 people die in the UK every year from "excess winter death", much of which can be directly attributed to fuel poverty.  to me this sounds like an alarming and almost unbelievable idea, that people are dying because they cannot afford to heat their homes.

I had a chance to talk with Jones after the conference.  the story gets even worse when she explains how challenging it can be for her organization to support people.  she tells me an anecdote about how sometimes people don't want something, even if and when you think it is in their own best interest...

the government started trying to address this problem (fuel poverty) along with huge inefficiencies in older homes by offering heavy rebates on home insulation (this is a current strategy in many places, including the US).  owners were skeptical and typically refused support.  eventually the government started offering the insulation for free (much of the funding was coming from the EU and the money needed to be spent by a certain date).  still, most homeowners did not want the free insulation.  in an amazing and unheard of strategy, the government even offered to install the insulation for free and then give the homeowner a cash gift with no strings attached.  we are talking free insulation that will make your house warmer, save you money every year starting immediately, and we will give you cash in addition to the free insulation.  still, it was a struggle to spend the money down and reach the households and homeowners in need.

this story put my jaw on the floor.  I will admit that I am naive and always imagine people jumping at the chance to do good in the world, but in this case we are talking about what may be the single most influential strategy for sustainable living: saving money.  I can't imagine people not wanting to do something that saves money, especially in an extreme case like this, where the work is free.

Jones explained very simply in her presentation; it's about more than energy efficiency and more than improving the homes.  the issues need to hit the people directly and in a way that is both personal and significant.  she listed off some of the key strategies and factors for connecting people directly to their energy use:

1. it has to be about the people (not about their houses)
2. you need to understand the audience and their needs
3. it has to be personal.  the message, the idea, everything
4. partnerships need to be formed

Jones told a story about a project she worked on called "Warmer Worcestershire", which was directly related to the fuel poverty issue.  she explained that everything from the concept to the story to the strategies was about cultivating and sending a clear message, about understanding the audience and really connecting with them, and about being simple and clear.  why call it Warmer Worcestershire?  because it is about the people, about their lives, and it touches everyone, especially people who are suffering from the circumstances of cold, uninsulated homes.

screenshot from Warmer Worcestershire website showing homes and their heat loss scores.  red is bad.  green is good.

one of the ideas that they came up with for this project was called a thermal flyover.    during the winter of 2009 they flew over the entire county, taking thermal images measuring the heat escaping from each home.  they compiled this information onto a gis map and put it on the internet, color coding each house.  now, any person in the area can look up any property and discover how the home performs in terms of heat loss through the roof.  red is bad.  green is good.  simple.  and on the same page where the person discovers how badly the house is performing: links to government and other sponsorship opportunities, advice and more information, and even direct connections to installers. simple.  effective.  successful.

and one last related anecdote that Jones told about energy use and conservation.  her agency asked the people to come together and help strategize ways to decrease energy use to show the effectiveness of conservation as well as more thoughtful energy use.  they picked a specific week to showcase these ideas and lots of folks got involved.  one of the ideas:  local restaurants offered "dine by candlelight dinners".  what a concept: the restaurants are saving energy (and hopefully money) and the patrons are getting what many would consider a better, intimate, more cozy experience.  simple.  effective.  genius.

Covenant CapaCITY Conference

I went to two conferences back to back during Sustainability Week in Malmo.  one was the CLICC Conference and the other one was Covenant CapaCITY.  both conferences were relevant to the idea of making cities and neighborhoods more sustainable though each had a slightly different focus.  to hear my description of CLICC, read my earlier post.  to hear more about Covenant CapaCITY, read on:

Covenant CapaCITY is a multi national/ international European program, co-funded by Intelligent Energy Europe.  it is a three year program that is mostly focused on helping cities and municipalities get up to speed on creating local Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) to reach the goals set by the Covenant of Mayors.  a SEAP is exactly what it sounds like, it is an attempt by the city to figure out how to move towards a better, more efficient use of energy over the short term and beyond.

what is happening in Europe around SEAPs is truly amazing.  cities are coming together, talking about what they are doing and how, and readily sharing information, best practices, and lessons learned.  everyone is benefitting from each city's experience.  in fact, many SEAPs are posted online for all to see.  here is an example of Dublin's SEAP (opens slowly!) which is well put together and contains all of the requisite information.

a SEAP is a combination of:

1. researching, documenting, and better understanding a municipality's energy use
2. collaborating across departments with communication and information
3. developing ideas and strategies to create a more sustainable future

because most people live in cities, how municipalities address climate change (and share and market their methodologies and ideals) has a significant impact on human behavior as well as on overall energy consumption on the planet.  one could argue that if every city in the EU formed a comprehensive and well drafted SEAP, the overall energy creation, consumption, and distribution for the EU would vastly improve over a short period of time.  if such an approach could take place in major cities around the world and/ or in the United States, the impact would be just as significant.

if Shanghai, Mexico City or even Boston can implement strategies that directly affect or influence 50% of their populations, these ideas, directives, and approaches can touch 9 million, 5 million, or 300,000 people.  that is an opportunity that is has vast potential, especially if we are looking to make change on a massive scale around energy understanding, consumption, and creation.

so, the short version is that even though I am not a city in the European Union, I greatly enjoyed the Covenant CapaCITY Conference in Malmo.  besides learning quite a bit about what is being done in cities across Europe, I had the opportunity to meet many people who are making climate adaptation a reality on a large scale.  I must take this opportunity to say that I appreciate and applaud their efforts and I am excited by the prospect of improving our situation with respect to global warming.  they are doing amazing work and as a collective are making great strides.


for more info:
to learn more about Covenant CapaCITY from their perspective, check out their website.

feedback: the next evolution in energy

in the afternoon during the CLICC Conference, Stina Wessman of the Interactive Institute of Sweden gave a very interesting presentation about feedback focused on sustainability.  though the entire presentation was in Swedish and the slides were rich with text (also in Swedish), I did manage to get the gist of some of what she was saying.  I also used this thing called "the google" to look up some of what she was talking about to learn more.

Stina Wessman, from the Interactive Institute of Sweden, talking about feedback and energy awareness at the CLICC Conference at Malmomassan in Hyllie

the Interactive Institute of Sweden is an experimental company that combines Information Technology, design, and research together and applies this learning and knowledge to a wide variety of fields and applications.  as usual, their website describes themselves better than I can:

Interactive Institute is a Swedish experimental IT & design research institute that conducts applied research and innovation through creative and participatory processes.

the Interactive Institute works ons lots of stuff, more than I can even get into in this post, so I will focus on what I gleaned from Stina's presentation and from reading a little on their website.  the Institute has a focus on sustainability (among other topics) and has engaged in many research projects and experiments about behavior and feedback, which ties in perfectly to the idea of CLICC, which is all about engaging city inhabitants on the issue of carbon footprint and helping people living in the city understand their own individual role(s) as a part of the citywide effort to become carbon neutral in the next 20 years.  yes.  I said it.  the city of Malmo would like to be carbon neutral in the next 20 years.  and the city is actively aiming toward that goal.

Stina talked about projects that are geared toward helping people see (and therefore better understand) their energy use and consumption.  she cited some very cool examples that are prototypes and/ or soon to be marketed and sold ideas that connect people and energy use.  much of what she talked about reminded me of the thinking and initiatives that were undertaken as part of the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition that I worked on through the BAC and Tufts.  our project, entitled curio, focused on sustainable living and awareness as much (if not more) than designing and constructing an 800 square foot zero energy house.

here are a couple that were neat.  there are many more on the website.

"The Power Aware Cord is designed to visualize the energy of the current use of electricity of the appliances connected with it through glowing pulses, flow, and intensity of light."  this picture is from the Interactive Institute website 

the Flower Lamp is another example of innovative thinking around energy use and visualization.  the lamp changes form and becomes dimmer/ brighter based on energy use.  the lamp is an attractive and interactive monitor of energy consumption that can, in turn, affect behavior.

the Element is an attempt to change energy from an unseen source to a visible source.  in this case the energy is heat, as evidenced in a radiator.  the experiment is to showcase the amount of heat being emitted from a radiator in a new form, light.  the light emission is directly matched to the heat emission, thus the brightness of the "radiator" tells you how hot it is.  from the flikr site:

It is usually hard to tell whether radiators are on or off except by laying a hand upon them.  This prototype is made out of glass, metal, and enough light bulbs to reach the same efficiency as an electric radiator, and the current energy level is visible at all times.

I will tell you about two more, but I recommend if you are interested to read up on the Interactive Institute.  they are doing some amazing work in the field of interaction, sustainability, and energy.

the Energy AWARE Clock is an electricity meter that resembles an ordinary kitchen clock.  it measures your energy consumption and tells you the time simultaneously while also allowing you to compare previous energy use to today's consumption, thus you become aware and notice improvements and changes in consumption.

lastly, BoEL is a chance to compare your energy use to your neighbors.  a web based interface and simple glowing orb in your window shows how much energy you are consuming.  red, green, and yellow are comparative measurements that allow each user as well as the neighbors to see how one unit performs.  this could lead to healthy competition, shared knowledge and team building, or even a little pang of guilt, all of which have been shown to affect behavior.  according to the website:

BoEL is an experimental social ambient interface and web service that presents daily consumption figures to home owners and neighbors to promote joint savings and foster competitive energy saving bahaviors.  The service includes an ambient lamp that provides feedback on the energy consumption in the household and these interfaces are installed so that the neighbors can observe each others energy status.

check out the Interactive Institute of Sweden's website for more cool strategies about using interaction and communication to affect behavior and sustainable living.

CLICC Conference

in a classic "oh, by the way" moment, I was emailing back and forth with someone who works for the city of Malmo in the Department for the Environment and he mentioned "Sustainability Week".  I was asking about finding someone to give me a tour of Augustenborg, a 1960's affordable housing urban development that had been falling into disrepair until, starting in the 90's, the city had targeted the buildings and neighborhood for upgrade and redevelopment using sustainable strategies as a driving force.  he said, "oh, maybe you should go to the conferences taking place next week as part of Malmo's Sustainability Week.  they are giving tours of Augustenborg, Sege Park, Vastra Hamnen..."

I couldn't believe my luck that an entire week of one day conferences and study tours was taking place while I happened to be here in Malmo.  I immediately emailed the conference organizers of two of the most exciting conferences, CLICC and Covenant CapaCITY.  both organizers responded quickly and allowed me to join the conferences past the registration date, for free, and said if there is space on the bus for the tours then I could join those as well.

start of the CLICC Conference in Malmo at the Malmomassan (conference center in Hyllie) presented by Kerstin Rubenson of Malmostad Environment Department

I will do separate postings about the neighborhood tours and even about some of the presenters, but here's a little bit about CLICC.  CLICC stands for Climate Living in Cities Concept (I think this link will take you to the auto translated Swedish page for more information).  the main goal of the four year pilot project is to provide opportunities and create successful strategies to drastically reduce the carbon footprint of people in cities.  with some funding from the country of Sweden, some from the EU, and some funding, participation, and organization from the city of Malmo (and other participating cities around the country), this program is a combination of grass roots movements and government facilitation.  the conference itself, called the midterm (program runs from 2010 to 2014) is an opportunity for stakeholders to get together and learn from the past and prepare for the future.

the conference website invites participants in by describing the conference:

Take part of project experience CLICC (Climate Living In Cities Concept), which presents a method for cost-effective climate renovation of buildings.  By combining investments with changes in behavior, climate impact from living in apartment buildings, together with costs, can decrease.

the conference was amazing and I sat on the edge of my seat all day, even when the presenter was talking only in Swedish and showing only Swedish slides.  thank goodness for google translate and free wireless access.  I learned quite a bit about what the city is doing and how it is tackling the immense job of helping its citizens learn about their part in the effort to become zero energy as a city (of 300,000 inhabitants!) and I spent much of the day in awe of the ongoing and long term effort and coordination taking place here in Malmo.

Trevor Graham of the Department of the Environment talking about the history of Malmo and the relevance of the idea of CLICC on the progress of the city toward carbon neutrality in the 21st century

I will post more as time allows on the conference and study tours.  the whole experience was... wait for it... yes...  you guessed it... amazing!