Creating the Energy for Change

This project will investigate innovative ways of dividing up and representing energy use in shared buildings so as to motivate occupants to save energy. Smart meters (energy monitors that feed information back to suppliers) are currently being introduced in Britain and around the world; the government aims to have one in every home and business in Britain by 2019. One reason for this is to provide people with better information about their energy use to help them to save energy. Providing energy feedback can be problematic in shared buildings, and here we focus on workplaces, where many different people interact and share utilities and equipment within that building. It is often difficult to highlight who is responsible for energy used and difficult therefore to divide up related costs and motivate changes in energy usage. We propose to focus on these challenges and consider the opportunities that exist in engaging whole communities of people in reducing energy use.

This project is multidisciplinary, drawing primarily on computer science skills of joining up data from different sources and in examining user interactions with technology, design skills of developing innovative and fun ways of representing data, and social science skills (sociology and psychology) in ensuring that displays are engaging, can motivate particular actions, and fit appropriately within the building environment and constraints. We will use a variety of methods making use of field deployments, user studies, ethnography, and small-scale surveys so as to evaluate ideas at every step.

We have divided the project into three key work packages: 'Taking Ownership' which will focus on responsibility for energy usage, 'Putting it Together' where we will put energy usage in context, and 'People Power' where we will focus on creating collective behaviour change. In more detail, 'Taking Ownership' will explore how to identify who is using energy within a building, how best to assign responsibility and how to feed that back to the occupants. We know that simplicity of design is key here, as well as issues of fairness and ethics, and indeed privacy (might people be able to monitor your coffee drinking habits from this data?). 'Putting it Together' will consider different ways of combining energy data, e.g. joining this up across user groups or spaces, and combining energy data with other commonly available information, e.g. weather or diary data, so as to put it in context. We will also spend time considering the particular building context, the routines that currently exist for occupants, and the motivations that people have for using and saving energy within the building, in understanding how best to present energy information to the occupants.

Our third theme, 'People Power' will focus on changing building user's behaviour collectively. We will examine how people interact around different energy goals, considering in particular cooperation and regulation, in finding out what works best in different contexts. The project then brings all aspects of research together in the use of themed challenge days where we promote specific energy actions for everyone in a building (e.g. switching off equipment after use) and demonstrate the impact that collective behaviour change can have. Beyond simply observing what works in this context through objective measures of energy usage, we will analyse when and where behaviour changes occurred and speak to the users themselves to find out what was engaging.

These activities will combine to inform technical, design and policy recommendations for energy monitoring in workplaces as well as conclusions for other multi-occupancy buildings. Moreover, we will develop a tool kit to pass on to other companies and buildings so that others can use the findings and experience gained here. We will also explore theoretical implications of our results and communicate our academic findings to the range of disciplines involved

The aim of the project is to identify means of changing behaviour so as to reduce energy use in shared spaces. Energy demand reduction is a cost effective means of achieving significant reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As such, potential beneficiaries are wide-ranging. Project outcomes have direct and immediate relevance for policy makers; energy and climate related NGOs; any organisations large enough to run multiple-occupancy offices - be they public, business or third sector; organisations concerned with managing energy in buildings; and academic researchers in areas involving energy, climate change, and/or the built environment. There are also implications for the wider public. As issues addressed (energy demand and emissions reduction) are of international relevance, longer term beneficiaries are not UK-limited. There is the potential for follow-on work which utilises Horizon's international partners, such as China Mobile, to achieve wider dissemination.

Given the potential to reduce energy use, lower energy bills, and potentially impact on building regulations, government departments including DECC, Ofgem, and BIS will find value in the project's outcomes which, in the short term, will illustrate methods of achieving current relevant policy aims (potentially informing advice and information disseminated in this area) and in the longer term may contribute to evidence-based policy-making. It addresses several UK government policy priorities, including economic competitiveness, climate change, energy security, and sustainable development. As noted above, these interests are shared by all developed economies, and are increasingly influential on policy in developing nations. The Committee on Climate Change's (CCC) Fourth Carbon Budget (2010), which sets out UK objectives for GHG emission reductions, targets a reduction in buildings-related emissions of 56% by 2030. Whilst considerable research has been conducted into encouraging low-carbon behaviours in the home (for example smart meters research, little attention has been paid to the more complex, but no less important, challenge of achieving the same in work-place settings.

For large-scale employers, whether national and local government, businesses, or third sector organisations, the project will contribute to decarbonising their operations and the lowering of their energy costs. For the commercial sector, research outputs will also contribute to the nascent energy management services market. Here, there is likely to be particular interest in design principles and prototypes developed, and engagement solutions for different contexts and building designs which may be incorporated into current projects. Longer term impacts may include the development of new service solutions, or even new start-up companies, based on project ideas and findings.

With regards to academic impact, the project will investigate an overlooked element in a rapidly growing research area addressing low carbon transitions. As such, it will speak to a multidisciplinary field incorporating social and computational sciences, design, and the built environment, not only generating new understandings but also strengthening inter-disciplinary linkages in areas which have so far been developed largely in isolation to one another.

For the general public, we aim to raise the visibility of energy use for employees working in shared spaces. This has the immediate aim of reducing energy use and wastage in the workplace, but may also result in further sustainable behaviour changes if those engaged transfer ideas and new energy practices to other areas of their lives. We also note the overarching value to society of achieving energy and so GHG reductions through behavioural means, both in economic and environmental terms.