Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ENCHANT (Energy Efficiency through behaviour change transition strategies)
Période du rapport: 2020-10-01 au 2022-03-31
The climate pact the new European Commission is driving forward is setting explicit and ambitious goals for deeply decarbonizing European lifestyles and economies. For reaching these goals, all sources for reducing the carbon imprint of energy production but also for reducing energy demand, need to be fully exploited. This leads the focus towards energy efficiency understood as an energy source in its own right as an important pillar of the Energy Transition. Behavioral science has made great progress in developing intervention tools and programmes to improve energy efficiency in this sector, but almost all of the studies in this area are based on small-scale pilot studies. To have a measurable effect on the European scale, the applicability of such programs in real-life, cost-efficient, and practical settings is still an open issue. The most important question to answer is, which (combination of) intervention tools are most effective implemented by which societal actor in which cultural context. ENCHANT will address this knowledge gap by a carefully designed research design:
Overall objective in ENCHANT:
ENCHANT tests established science-based behavioural intervention techniques under controlled conditions in an unprecedented large-scale effort, targeting millions of European citizens using a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) approach. Interventions will be developed, fitted, and tested with the objective to unlock an energy efficiency potential in the general public, through behavioural change. Including a large group of user-partners, ENCHANT will roll out interventions through already existing communication channels (used by energy providers, municipalities, environmental NGOs) and thus tests their effects in real-life settings. Through a systematic evaluation of data gathered from implementing these interventions, in combination with re-analysing already existing data, ENCHANT will design an empirically informed decision tool for impactful campaign design targeting energy-efficiency, relevant for a number of public and private actors (e.g. policymakers).
Objective 1: Increase energy efficiency behaviour by a large-scale rollout of interventions informed by behavioural science.
Objective 2: Use existing data and research-based knowledge to streamline and optimize the application of interventions.
Objective 3: Tackling cross-cutting issues through a contextual and multi-disciplinary approach.
To be utmost comprehensive in its approach, ENCHANT will target a population of 8.4 million European households in six countries covering the cultural variability of Europe (see Section 2 for details). In so doing, the project will consider different sets of:
• Interventions types (e.g. information campaigns, consumption feedbacks, social norms).
• User-partners’ categories (e.g. municipalities, NGOs, and energy providers),
• Targeted behaviours (e.g. investments, household heating and cooling, transportation),
• Communication channels (e.g. press, advertising, applications, web portals)
Overall objective in ENCHANT:
ENCHANT tests established science-based behavioural intervention techniques under controlled conditions in an unprecedented large-scale effort, targeting millions of European citizens using a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) approach. Interventions will be developed, fitted, and tested with the objective to unlock an energy efficiency potential in the general public, through behavioural change. Including a large group of user-partners, ENCHANT will roll out interventions through already existing communication channels (used by energy providers, municipalities, environmental NGOs) and thus tests their effects in real-life settings. Through a systematic evaluation of data gathered from implementing these interventions, in combination with re-analysing already existing data, ENCHANT will design an empirically informed decision tool for impactful campaign design targeting energy-efficiency, relevant for a number of public and private actors (e.g. policymakers).
Objective 1: Increase energy efficiency behaviour by a large-scale rollout of interventions informed by behavioural science.
Objective 2: Use existing data and research-based knowledge to streamline and optimize the application of interventions.
Objective 3: Tackling cross-cutting issues through a contextual and multi-disciplinary approach.
To be utmost comprehensive in its approach, ENCHANT will target a population of 8.4 million European households in six countries covering the cultural variability of Europe (see Section 2 for details). In so doing, the project will consider different sets of:
• Interventions types (e.g. information campaigns, consumption feedbacks, social norms).
• User-partners’ categories (e.g. municipalities, NGOs, and energy providers),
• Targeted behaviours (e.g. investments, household heating and cooling, transportation),
• Communication channels (e.g. press, advertising, applications, web portals)
A thorough literature study on a large selection of behaviour science-based energy efficiency interventions was carried out and has consolidated the existing knowledge in this domain. Based on this literature study, possible intervention strategies have been designed with the user partners to (a) identify which intervention strategies through which communication channels can be provided by which user partner, and (b) secure that all intervention strategies, channels, and target behaviours described in the DoA are covered in the intervention matrix. Following this activity, an intervention matrix has been developed, matching user partners to intervention packages. In parallel, a thorough research of existing datasets relevant for the topic of energy efficiency was conducted and a data-base for these data sets was developed. A comprehensive review of findings from related research projects was produced. Rules and procedures for implementing the intervention matrix for each user partner were defined. Furthermore, for securing the seamless and comparable implementation of the intervention pilots, a monitoring plan for the pilot implementation was developed, which is used by all partners for keeping control of the progress and potential barriers in implementation of the pilots. The randomized control trial procedures were defined and evaluation criteria developed together with the user partners. To develop the decision tool, first activities were taken up to train the algorithms with datasets (at this point mostly data from other projects) to form the basis for the larger ENCHANT datasets to be fed into the analysis in the second reporting period. Dissemination, exploitation, and communication strategies were developed, and the project homepage was implemented.
ENCHANT works towards the following ambitions to progress beyond the state of the art:
ENCHANT aims to test different packages of evidence-based interventions in large-scale tests comprising millions of European consumers across 6 countries and real world conditions. An important contribution of ENCHANT is to investigate the effect of different interventions on a wider variety of energy-related choices, comprising (1) investment behaviours; (2) maintenance behaviours; and (3) adjustment of everyday behaviours and behaviours in the private sphere. ENCHANT will assess interventions packages using of a variety of real-life communication channels, distributed by several different types of institutions and organisations who are already active in the energy domain across six different European countries. ENCHANT aims to test the effect and cost-effectiveness of the different channels to provide evidence about which options work best in the different scenarios. ENCHANT will test intervention packages in different contextual conditions in countries across Europe under realistic conditions, acknowledging boundaries set by economy, regulations, and market conditions. Impact will be measured by developing a series of key performance indicators for the project’s overall effects – in terms of energy efficiency enhancement, energy (and monetary) savings, GHG emissions reduction, and not the least well-being of recipients. ENCHANT will further investigate how efforts can be best upscaled and replicated to maximize its impact. The results will be translated into a web-based decision tool. ENCHANT will include data from different social energy science disciplines to develop, test and verify the intervention impacts. ENCHANT aims to use therefore multidisciplinary knowledge. Furthermore, the project adopts a transdisciplinary approach combining multidisciplinary knowledge with experience-based knowing to engage with problem-solving in the context of application. To do so, the project involves a large number of user-partners deeply involved in project activities. ENCHANT’s user-partners will not only deliver the various intervention packages, but contribute as well with knowledge from their past and current experiences, activities and know-how of customers of energy companies, municipal citizens and members of NGOs in the energy domain. Such a variety in types of user-partners will provide both complex and contextual knowledge of how energy behaviour can be affected and not the least how energy interventions can be provided outside behavioural laboratory situations.
ENCHANT aims to test different packages of evidence-based interventions in large-scale tests comprising millions of European consumers across 6 countries and real world conditions. An important contribution of ENCHANT is to investigate the effect of different interventions on a wider variety of energy-related choices, comprising (1) investment behaviours; (2) maintenance behaviours; and (3) adjustment of everyday behaviours and behaviours in the private sphere. ENCHANT will assess interventions packages using of a variety of real-life communication channels, distributed by several different types of institutions and organisations who are already active in the energy domain across six different European countries. ENCHANT aims to test the effect and cost-effectiveness of the different channels to provide evidence about which options work best in the different scenarios. ENCHANT will test intervention packages in different contextual conditions in countries across Europe under realistic conditions, acknowledging boundaries set by economy, regulations, and market conditions. Impact will be measured by developing a series of key performance indicators for the project’s overall effects – in terms of energy efficiency enhancement, energy (and monetary) savings, GHG emissions reduction, and not the least well-being of recipients. ENCHANT will further investigate how efforts can be best upscaled and replicated to maximize its impact. The results will be translated into a web-based decision tool. ENCHANT will include data from different social energy science disciplines to develop, test and verify the intervention impacts. ENCHANT aims to use therefore multidisciplinary knowledge. Furthermore, the project adopts a transdisciplinary approach combining multidisciplinary knowledge with experience-based knowing to engage with problem-solving in the context of application. To do so, the project involves a large number of user-partners deeply involved in project activities. ENCHANT’s user-partners will not only deliver the various intervention packages, but contribute as well with knowledge from their past and current experiences, activities and know-how of customers of energy companies, municipal citizens and members of NGOs in the energy domain. Such a variety in types of user-partners will provide both complex and contextual knowledge of how energy behaviour can be affected and not the least how energy interventions can be provided outside behavioural laboratory situations.