C-tech update

Creating the Energy for Change (C-tech) was a 5 year research project funded as part of the build TEDDI programme of research (EPSRC), investigating innovative ways of dividing up and representing energy use in shared buildings so as to motivate occupants to save energy.

A full history of the project can be located here.

The project team presented findings from C-tech at TEDDINET-Ctech Non-Domestic Energy Symposium; an event that brought together more than 40 researchers, industry stakeholders and policy-makers to share their experiences of energy and sustainability in non-domestic buildings, and to reflect on the contributions of the C-tech project.

Each member of the C-tech team presented their research highlights of the last five years: Murray Goulden summarised his understandings of organisational context and the consequences for energy management, while Caroline Leygue presented her findings around the relationships between people and energy at work and the implications of this for interventions. Ben Bedwell and Enrico Costanza then discussed the development, deployment and evaluation of various digital interventions. Alexa Spence brought the findings of the previous talks together, demonstrating how the project led to a collaborative, concerted effort to deliver e-Genie (our final digital intervention). Nick Banks concluded by presenting the motivations for and contents of the C-tech Toolkit.

The audience and expert panel commended C-techs attempts to explore the reality of energy management in organisations from several different perspectives and offered various ways for academia, industry and policy-makers to take C-tech’s outputs forward and continue to deliver impact.

C-tech Outputs & Resources

C-tech’s final report, aimed at any stakeholders in workplace energy management and reduction, can be downloaded here.

C-tech’s Toolkit will soon feature on the Centre for Sustainable Energy website and  C-tech project blog.

Publications:

Staddon, S., Cycil, C., Goulden, M., Leygue, C. and Spence, A. (2016). Intervening to Change Behaviour and Save Energy in the Workplace: A Systematic Review of Available Evidence. Energy Research and Social Science. 17, 30-51.

Costanza, E., B. Bedwell, M. Jewell, J. Colley, and T. Rodden (2016). ‘A bit like British Weather, I Suppose’ Design and Evaluation of the Temperature Calendar. In Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI ’16, New York, NY, USA. ACM.

Bedwell, B., E. Costanza, and M. Jewell (2016). Understanding energy consumption at work: Learning from arrow hill. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing, CSCW ’16, New York, NY, USA. ACM. doi:10.1145/2818048.2819993

Kefalidou, G., Skatova, A., Shipp, V. and Bedwell, B. (2015). The Role of Self-Reflection in Sustainability. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services Adjunct (MobileHCI ’15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1030-1033. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2786567.2795398

Jewell, M. O., Costanza, E., Kittley-Davies J. (2015). Connecting the Things to the Internet: An Evaluation of Four Configuration Strategies for Wi-Fi Devices with Minimal User Interfaces. In Proc. UbiComp ’15.

Tolias, E. Costanza, E., Rogers, A., Bedwell, B., and Banks, N. (2015). Idlewars: an Evaluation of a Pervasive Game to Promote Sustainable Behaviour in the Workplace. Int Conf on Entertainment Computing.

Demski, C., Butler, C., Parkhill, K. Spence, A., and Pidgeon, N. (2015). Public values for energy system change.  Global Environmental Change. 34, 59-69.

Goulden, M. and Spence, A. (2015). Caught in the Middle: The Role of the Facilities Manager in Organisational Energy Use. Energy Policy. 85, 280-287.

Xenias, D. Axon, C. J., Whitmarsh, L., Connor, P. M., Balta-Marsh, N., and Spence, A. (2015). UK Smart Grid development: an expert assessment of the benefits, pitfalls and functions. Renewable Energy. 81, 89-102.

Butler, C., Demski, C., Parkhill, K., Pidgeon, N. and Spence, A. (2015). Public Values for Energy Futures: Framing, Indeterminacy and Policy Making. Energy Policy,  87, 665-672.

Spence, A., Demski, C., Butler, C., Parkhill, K., and Pidgeon, N. (2015). Public perceptions of demand side management and a smarter energy future. Nature Climate Change. 5, 550-554.

Bedwell, B., Leygue, C., Goulden, M., McAuley, D., Colley, J., Ferguson, E., Banks, N. and Spence, A., (2014). Apportioning energy consumption in the workplace: a review of issues in using metering data to motivate staff to save energy. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management. Special Issue of Smart Metering Technology & Society. 1196-1211.

Also featured in a cross journal special collection of articles on the Psychology of Work.

Leygue, C., Ferguson, E., Skatova, A., and Spence, A. (2014). Energy sharing and energy feedback: Affective and behavioural reactions to communal energy displays. Frontiers in Energy Research, section Energy Systems and Policy.

Goulden, M., Bedwell., B., Rennick-Egglestone, S., Rodden, T., and Spence, A. (2014). Smart Grids, Smart users? The Role of the User in Demand  Side Management. Energy Research & Social Science, 2, 21-29.

Spence, A., Leygue, C., Bedwell, B. and O’Malley (2014). Engaging with energy reduction: Does a climate change frame have the potential for achieving broader sustainable behaviour? Journal of Environmental Psychology. 38, 17-28.

Colley, J. A., Bedwell, B., Crabtree, A. and Rodden, T. (2013). Exploring Reactions to Widespread Energy Monitoring. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT, 8120, 91-108.

Additional presentations (some also peer reviewed)

• Spence, A., Banks, N., Bedwell, B., Costanza, E., Ferguson, E., Goulden, M., Jewell, M., and Leygue, C. (2016). e-Genie (Goal-setting and ENergy Information Engagement) in the workplace.Teddinet Energy feedback symposium, Edinburgh, June, 2016.
• Leygue, C. and Spence, A. Energy Feedback in the Workplace: Effects of Display Units.Teddinet Energy feedback symposium, Edinburgh, June, 2016.
• Leygue, C. Ferguson, E. & Spence, A. (Aug, 2015).  Motivations to save Energy at Work. American Psychological Association Convention, Toronto, Canada.
• Leygue, C. (Sep, 2015). Psychology of saving energy in an organisational context. Invited talk at workshop on Information campaigns and the measures for energy consumption behavioural changes. Joint research centre of the European Commission. Aspire, Italy.
• Leygue, C., Ferguson, E. and Spence, A. (2015). Saving energy in the workplace: why, and for whom. Motivations to save energy at work. Poster presentation at ETRI Energy Policy Conference, University of Nottingham, UK.
• Goulden, M. (Dec, 2015). Making the Energy System Work. Energy Policy Conference: Invited Panelist. University of Nottingham, UK.
• Leygue, C., Ferguson, E., and Spence, A., (Sep, 2015). Saving energy in the workplace: why, and for whom? Environmental Psychology Conference, Groningen University, The Netherlands.
• Spence, A., Staddon, S., Chandrika, C., Goulden, M., and Leygue, C. (Sep, 2015). Changing Energy behaviour in the workplace. Environmental Psychology Conference, Groningen University, The Netherlands.
• Spence, A., (June, 2015). The Psychological Distance of Climate Change. Keynote speaker at BrEPS (British Environmental Psychology Society), Sheffield University, UK.
• Spence, A. (May, 2015). Keeping the lights on in 2050. Cross University ETRI Panel debate, University of Nottingham, UK.
• Leygue, C. (September, 2014) Saving energy in the workplace: Why and for whom?, Behave, 3^rd– 4^th September, Oxford, UK.
• Spence, A., Demski, C., Parkhill, K., Butler, C. and Pidgeon, N., (September, 2014).  Public perceptions of a smarter energy future. Behave, 3^rd– 4^th September, Oxford, UK.
• Spence, A (December, 2014). Public perceptions and engagement with Demand Side Management. Invited talk. Sheffield University, UK.
• Leygue, C. (2014) Altruism vs benevolence: The case of saving energy at work, Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology 15, 349.
• Leygue, C. (July, 2014) Free riding, altruistic punishment, and emotions in an energy sharing context., European Association of Social Psychology General Meeting.
• Goulden, M. (November, 2013) The Social Construction of Energy in Organisational Management, STS Perspectives on Energy conference.
• Spence, A. (October, 2013). Public acceptance of a ‘smarter’ energy future. Invited talk at ISS, University of Nottingham. Also available as a podcast.
• Spence, A., (October, 2013). Public acceptance of a ‘smarter’ energy future. Invited talk at EA Technology Demand Side Forum meeting, Capenhurst, UK.
• Spence, A., Demski, C. and Pigeon (September, 2013). Public acceptance of a ‘smarter’ energy future.Paper Presentation at Environmental Psychology Conference, Magdeburg, Germany.
• Leygue, C., Skatova, A., Spence, A., Ferguson, E. and Bedwell, B. (September, 2013). Communal energy displays: How do people react to energy sharing and free riding.Paper Presentation at Environmental Psychology Conference, Magdeburg, Germany.

Additional articles and coverage

• Spence, A., (June, 2016). Invited blog on the Energy Feedback Teddinet Symposium, Edinburgh.Teddinet website.
• Spence, A. (Jan, 2016).Invited blog on the EPSRC website.
• Pearce, F. (April, 2015). UK people happy to cut energy use, but wary of smart meters.New Scientist
• Mathieson, K. (April, 2015). Hand over control of my fridge to an energy company? No thanks, say Brits.The Guardian.
• Anthes, E. (Jan, 2015). The smart angry home.The New Yorker.
• Bedwell, B. (Sep, 2014).  Radio interview on BBC Radio Nottingham.
• Leygue, C. (Sep, 2014). Radio interview on BBC Radio Nottingham.
• Bedwell, B. (Sep, 2014). Radio interview on BBC Radio Local – The Mark Forrest Show.
• Leygue, C. (Sep, 2014). Radio interviews on BBC Radio Local – The Mark Forrest Show.
• Goulden, M., Bedwell, B. and Spence, A., (2014). Power to the People. Nature Climate Change. 4, 649-650.
• Morgan-Jone, G. (June, 2014). Sustainability in the Workplace. University of Nottingham Ingenuity Business Network.
• Spence, A. (June, 2013). The Science Show – University Radio Nottingham.

Further academic publications resulting from the project are planned. Members of the team are planning further research into related energy matters, including looking at the possibility of developing the e-Genie platform further.

Partners: University of Southampton, Centre for Sustainable Energy

Test sites: Digital Catapult, Arup