European Network for Research, Good Practice and Innovation for Sustainable Energy (ENERGISE): An Energising Impact

Details of the Impact

ENERGISE offered novel social-scientific insights into factors driving individual and collective energy-related choices and behaviour. The project progressed academic, public and policy debates across Europe, directly addressing 7 major knowledge gaps that affect both national energy policy and the advancement of the European Energy Union.

    Figure 3:  Major knowledge gaps addressed by ENERGISE

In addressing these gaps, ENERGISE brought about impacts in several areas.

Cultural

ENERGISE identified that cultural change is a key ingredient in successful energy transitions. Individual energy consumption is a function of who we are, where we come from, and the socio-cultural and material contexts in which we live. Societal norms and routines greatly determine our patterns of energy use as well as our ability and/or willingness to change those patterns. Without a comprehensive understanding of these energy cultures, public policy measures to reduce energy consumption at the individual or household levels are likely to fail. In designing and successfully implementing ENERGISE Living Labs, the project identified and challenged existing energy cultures. The project:

●        Enhanced awareness and scientific evidence of the relationship between energy practices and cultures and their impacts on society and the environment.

●        Developed ground-breaking scientific insights into links between energy routines and ruptures.

Attitudinal

In transforming energy cultures, ENERGISE achieved attitudinal changes in individuals and communities across Europe. The ENERGISE Living Labs directly impacted energy practices in 308 households across 8 European countries. The research compiled from these households, identified changes in individual and collective practices of energy consumption that have significantly reduced energy use. Camile Morend, a resident of Geneva who took part in the Living Labs, noted: ‘I really liked it because it allowed me to be aware of our impact on laundry heating, to think about it and act as a result’.

ENERGISE:

●        Uncovered effective ways to turn everyday low-carbon practices into routines.

●        Improved use of social-scientific evidence to address challenges to energy transition.

Policy

ENERGISE directly informed a Directorate-General Research and Innovation of the European Commission report on fostering knowledge valorisation through citizen engagement.

The language and recommendations from ENERGISE have found its way into new government strategy. This is evident in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications’ ‘Reduce your Use’ campaign which ‘supports households to actively manage their energy use, and in doing so, reduce their costs and carbon emissions’. Reduce your Use is supported by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

Reflecting on ENERGISE, Ruth Buggie of SEAI (Head of Mobility and Smart Networks) attests: ‘The research undertaken helped frame the policy and programme development opportunities for us as a national agency’. This is certainly the case with Reduce your Use, where emphasis is given to enabling proactive energy behaviours. Minister Eamon Ryan asserts that ‘The Reduce Your Use campaign offers useful energy saving tips’, noting that ‘the energy we conserve can make a big contribution to costs for individual households and can help us with energy security overall’.

ENERGISE thereby directly and indirectly informed national and EU-level policy options for changing quality and quantity of energy use.

The project:

●        Identified and communicated policy implications and options at national and EU levels.

●        Improved a collective understanding of current policy actions by individual consortium nations.

Environmental

The ENERGISE Living Labs implemented practices that enabled reductions in energy use in households across Europe. The project proved that if these practices were implemented across all households in Europe, the energy savings would be significant. For example, one less laundry cycle per week in Swiss households for a year represents a saving of around 13 million m3 of water, 10 million liters of laundry products and the equivalent annual electricity consumption of 90,000 households – if implemented by all Swiss households. A 1°C drop in room temperature, during the winter months when buildings are heated, results in an estimated saving of 6% of all energy dedicated to heating homes in Switzerland. The project has thus proven that incremental changes to household energy behaviours across Europe will unequivocally aid the transition to a decarbonised system.

ENERGISE:

●        Progressed an understanding of theory to better understand and change energy behaviours.

●        Assured that all project-related events were organised in the most environmentally and climate-friendly way possible.

Educational

ENERGISE has had a substantial and meaningful impacts on all consortium members and associated networks. The project has established and strengthened existing interdisciplinary networks and cooperation. ENERGISE has advanced academic understanding for sustainable energy across Europe and provided incentive for several offshoot pan-European research projects.