Periodic Report Summary - CHANGING BEHAVIOUR (Contextualising behavioural change in energy programmes involving intermediaries and policymaking organizations working towards changing behaviour)
The aim of the project is to support a shift toward end-user services in European energy policy. Its objectives are to:
1. develop a sophisticated but practical model of end-user behaviour and stakeholder interaction
2. integrate knowledge of context (e.g. national culture and institutions), timing and actors into demand management practice
3. pilot the transfer of context-tailored demand side measures
4. create a toolkit for practitioners to manage the socio-technical change involved in reducing energy demand. This toolkit will be sensitive to the influence of context, timing and actors, thus facilitating the cross-country transfer and adaptation to local contexts of European best practices in old and new EU Member States.
The project works through intensive cooperation between researchers and intermediary organisations, such as governmental or semi-governmental energy agencies, NGOs, consultancies and energy service companies. Together with these organisations, the project analyses behavioural responses to demand side measures and tests the transfer of demand side measures from one European context to another. The aim is to create new knowledge on energy related end-user behaviour and to ensure that this knowledge is useful for practitioners and policy makers in different parts of Europe.
The work plan consists of the following work packages:
WP1 Inventory of European demand management programmes
WP2 Development of the conceptual model: success factors, underlying models of socio-technical change, and methods of target group interaction
WP3 Researcher-practitioner dialogue with intermediary organisations
WP4 Context-tailoring and piloting of best practice programmes
WP5 Evaluation and toolkit development
WP6 Management and dissemination
Major results to date include:
- WP1 has finished its work, and the D1 database is complete.
- WP2 has finished its work, reported in deliverables D2 - D6. Additionally, 27 case studies have been published on the project website.
- WP3 has finished its work, reported in deliverables D7-D10. Additionally, four regional dialogue workshops have been organised, with a total of 177 participants.
- WP4 is ongoing. Pilot projects have been designed and are being implemented, the evolution of the projects has been documented and evaluation criteria have been developed.
- WP5 is ongoing. The self-evaluation and the toolkit work has been planned and work has started.
- Since the start of the project, 8 articles or peer-reviewed conference papers and 3 book chapters have been published, 29 international presentations have been made at conferences and 56 presentations for the general public and decision makers have been given.
%The expected final results of the project include a theoretically rich, but practical, model of end-user behaviour and stakeholder interaction, which integrates knowledge of context, timing and actors into energy demand management practice. This new knowledge is created through dialogue between researchers, energy practitioners and policy makers, both within and outside the project. The expected impact is to contribute to a more sustainable energy economy by:
- Providing knowledge tools for future EU energy efficiency policies and enhancing the competencies of practitioners operating in the field, thus reinforcing the implementation of energy-efficiency policies.
- Improving knowledge of end-user behaviour and demand-side measures by enhancing existing methods with a sophisticated understanding of drivers and obstacles to behavioural change, including the role of cultural and institutional context.
- Facilitating a shift toward energy end-use services by accelerating the transformational role of energy intermediaries and by developing and disseminating tools to explore end-user behaviour and respond to energy end-user's needs.
- Enabling the exchange of best practices by providing a knowledge base on the influence of cultural and institutional characteristics.
1. develop a sophisticated but practical model of end-user behaviour and stakeholder interaction
2. integrate knowledge of context (e.g. national culture and institutions), timing and actors into demand management practice
3. pilot the transfer of context-tailored demand side measures
4. create a toolkit for practitioners to manage the socio-technical change involved in reducing energy demand. This toolkit will be sensitive to the influence of context, timing and actors, thus facilitating the cross-country transfer and adaptation to local contexts of European best practices in old and new EU Member States.
The project works through intensive cooperation between researchers and intermediary organisations, such as governmental or semi-governmental energy agencies, NGOs, consultancies and energy service companies. Together with these organisations, the project analyses behavioural responses to demand side measures and tests the transfer of demand side measures from one European context to another. The aim is to create new knowledge on energy related end-user behaviour and to ensure that this knowledge is useful for practitioners and policy makers in different parts of Europe.
The work plan consists of the following work packages:
WP1 Inventory of European demand management programmes
WP2 Development of the conceptual model: success factors, underlying models of socio-technical change, and methods of target group interaction
WP3 Researcher-practitioner dialogue with intermediary organisations
WP4 Context-tailoring and piloting of best practice programmes
WP5 Evaluation and toolkit development
WP6 Management and dissemination
Major results to date include:
- WP1 has finished its work, and the D1 database is complete.
- WP2 has finished its work, reported in deliverables D2 - D6. Additionally, 27 case studies have been published on the project website.
- WP3 has finished its work, reported in deliverables D7-D10. Additionally, four regional dialogue workshops have been organised, with a total of 177 participants.
- WP4 is ongoing. Pilot projects have been designed and are being implemented, the evolution of the projects has been documented and evaluation criteria have been developed.
- WP5 is ongoing. The self-evaluation and the toolkit work has been planned and work has started.
- Since the start of the project, 8 articles or peer-reviewed conference papers and 3 book chapters have been published, 29 international presentations have been made at conferences and 56 presentations for the general public and decision makers have been given.
%The expected final results of the project include a theoretically rich, but practical, model of end-user behaviour and stakeholder interaction, which integrates knowledge of context, timing and actors into energy demand management practice. This new knowledge is created through dialogue between researchers, energy practitioners and policy makers, both within and outside the project. The expected impact is to contribute to a more sustainable energy economy by:
- Providing knowledge tools for future EU energy efficiency policies and enhancing the competencies of practitioners operating in the field, thus reinforcing the implementation of energy-efficiency policies.
- Improving knowledge of end-user behaviour and demand-side measures by enhancing existing methods with a sophisticated understanding of drivers and obstacles to behavioural change, including the role of cultural and institutional context.
- Facilitating a shift toward energy end-use services by accelerating the transformational role of energy intermediaries and by developing and disseminating tools to explore end-user behaviour and respond to energy end-user's needs.
- Enabling the exchange of best practices by providing a knowledge base on the influence of cultural and institutional characteristics.