E-KOLL - Methods and tools to engage residents in energy saving

Abstract: The Earth’s population is increasing at the same time as our resources are decreasing. More and more people are therefore realising the importance of a sustainable society. There are two main reasons. Firstly, energy as a scarce commodity is becoming more expensive every day. Secondly, we need to think long-term in order not to endanger life for future generations. The public landlord Hyresbostäder in Norrköping has set a target to decrease their energy consumption with 30 percent by 2030. This investment, in collaboration with Hyresgästföreningen, is called E-KOLL (E stands for energy and KOLL for awareness) and includes both internal and external work within the areas of Organisation, Economy and Behaviour. The last mentioned category deals with the importance of including and engaging the tenants to reach the energy goals of E-KOLL. To make this happen, Hyresbostäder has chosen to engage volunteer tenants, so called energyambassadors. Together with the district supervisor and representatives of Hyresgästföreningen they are going to work on a local level to include and engage the tenants. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how this collaboration could function as well as the needs for creating a concept to inspire tenants to save energy. This was done with the help of field studies such as observations and focus group interviews. The result, which is based on a thematic analysis of the collected data, is a set of key factors that can be used in the creation of a concept to include the tenants in EKOLL. An essential key factor for the work of changing people’s behaviour in E-KOLL is to pinpoint who is in charge and define clear guidelines for the task. Co-operation of residents is also a key factor to make the communication and flow of information to work on a higher level. Therefore this should be a priority with the help of participatory workshops and more feedback in general. It should also be taken to consideration that the target group of E-KOLL, the tenants, is not just one target group but several. One important target group that’s not in the same position to absorb information is immigrants that don’t fully understand the Swedish language. Another important target group is children that have the power to influence other people in their surroundings.