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Engaging building users. Lessons from the ‘frontline’. CREATE Centre 25 September 2008 Simon Roberts Chief Executive. Outline. Centre for Sustainable Energy Our Big Energy Challenge – linking technical and human approaches 100 ideas house – communications beyond the ‘green-and-keen’
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Engaging building users Lessons from the ‘frontline’ CREATE Centre25 September 2008Simon RobertsChief Executive
Outline • Centre for Sustainable Energy • Our Big Energy Challenge – linking technical and human approaches • 100 ideas house – communications beyond the ‘green-and-keen’ • Lessons we’ve learned (and still struggle to apply)
About us • One of the UK’s leading energy charities • Spent the last 30 years sharing our knowledge and practical experience to enable people to change the way they think and act on energy • Innovation in energy advice, training & education, community and organisational engagement and policy analysis • Now 45 people, £2.3 million turnover
Our Big Energy Challenge • Combining improved energy metering and monitoring with ‘energy champions’ training • Working with public sector organisations in Local Strategic Partnership of Bath & North East Somerset • Funded by Government ‘Invest to Save’ programme over 3 years
Before • One laboratory. £80K a year electricity bill • Then the data…
After the data & ‘champion’ • Data shared with trained ‘energy champion’ in lab • Saving c £25K a year – 105 tonnes CO2
The real challenge • Decision-making structures • At Hospital, improved monitoring shows heating and cooling systems ‘fighting’ each other • Potential saving from modest capital improvements of £250,000 per year • Taken nearly 18 months to secure order for works
100 ideas house • Engage and encourage to action the people who aren’t as interested or motivated in “the issues” as we are • ASPIRATION not WORTHY CAUSE • STYLE not SUBSTANCE • EMOTION and FEELING not INFORMATION and DEBATE • The people we sometimes call ‘apathetic’ may just have different values and motivations which need a different appeal
Similar ideas • London council who put chocolates on the desks of people who had switched their monitors off at lunch-time • School children leading energy management in school (children can often by-pass usual ‘objections’ from adults) • Carbon-cutting competition between footballers fromBristol City and Bristol Rovers
Lessons • Not everyone is as interested and motivated as we are • Appeal to their interests and motivations (not yours!) • See how you can make data available and train staff to understand what it might be telling us about their working situation • Human engagement as important as technical rigour (but you need both) • Don’t underestimate potential for managers to fail to make best decisions quickly!
Contact www.cse.org.uk simon.roberts@cse.org.ukwww.campaignstrategy.orgwww.bigenergychallenge.org