Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SAVES2 (Students Achieving Valuable Energy Savings 2)

Teaser

Fuel poverty is an increasing socio-economic problem with severe health impacts and significant environmental implications. It affects millions of households across Europe and is generally triggered by a combination of low incomes, high fuel costs and the poor energy...

Summary

Fuel poverty is an increasing socio-economic problem with severe health impacts and significant environmental implications. It affects millions of households across Europe and is generally triggered by a combination of low incomes, high fuel costs and the poor energy performance of the housing stock. According to the latest Eurostat findings 5 of the countries that SAVES 2 operates in have some of the highest rates of people who cannot afford to heat their homes. The different views that exist across the European Member States on fuel poverty, together with the various metrics that are used to measure fuel poverty and to define vulnerable groups in their legislation, are additional drawbacks to addressing the problem. In recent years, many initiatives have taken place in Europe to promote measures and good practices to reduce fuel poverty; 54 million Europeans cannot afford to heat their homes in winter and about the same number are either facing energy debts or living in deteriorated dwellings.

Bouzarovski et al. (2012) suggest that young adults are often an under-reported and under-supported group of the population that suffer from fuel poverty – they state that “in addition to the poor knowledge of thermal comfort and energy efficiency standards”, the situation of young adults is “in part attributable to the widespread cultural expectation that is acceptable for individuals in this demographic group to live in poorly heated and low quality housing”. It is an unacceptable situation, and the SAVES 2 project aims to address this.

As such, one aspect of SAVES 2 is to carry out research to identify current trends in the provision and the selection of private-rented sector student housing in each of the seven participating countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania, and the UK).

In terms of project objectives, SAVES 2 aims to reach over 219,000 students in the seven countries across Europe to inspire them to adopt energy-saving habits at an early stage of their independent lives and to seek out energy efficient properties when moving into the private rented sector, to help minimise their exposure to fuel poverty. The objectives of the project are:
• Reach 38,000 students living in dormitories each academic year (114,000 students over 42 months) with the Student Switch Off energy saving campaign
• Save quantifiable amounts of energy (9 GWhs in final energy consumption) in student dormitories through the adoption of sustainable energy behaviours by students
• Reach over 100,000 students when they are looking at moving into the private-rented sector to encourage them to make efficient housing choices that minimise their exposure to fuel poverty
• Reach over 100,000 when they move into, and live in the private rented sector to improve their understanding of energy bills, provide general advice on the efficient management of equipment and heating controls

The project aims to tackle three areas:
• Support clearly defined groups of vulnerable customers in tackling fuel poverty by facilitating more sustainable energy behaviour and choices in their everyday life, without compromising comfort levels
• Facilitate consumer understanding of energy bills (on and off line), leading to actions allowing for a reduction in energy consumption
• Create better instruments for improving consumer understanding and routing purchase decisions towards higher efficiency products, without compromising comfort levels, and with no additional relevant environmental impacts

Work performed

SAVES 2 is a 42 month-long project that was launched on the 1 May 2017 and is expected to be completed on the 31 October 2020. In the last 20 months numerous activities have taken place, generating positive results:
• The Student Switch Off (SSO) energy saving campaign was successfully launched and completed in 14 universities housing 41,814 students in seven different countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania, and the UK) for the 2017/18 academic year. Various awareness raising activities took place including: on site dormitory visits (door-to-door knocking, stalls at strategic places across the university/dormitories), training for students to become project ambassadors, photo competitions and climate quizzes, and end of year celebratory events. The results have been encouraging, with 11,793 students actively signed up to the campaign (28% of the student population) and 263 signed up as project ambassadors, resulting in an overall saving of 3.33% of energy compared to the baseline. This equates to primary energy saving of 3.4 GWhs.
• The SSO energy saving campaign has been successfully launched for the 2018/19 academic year, in 14 universities in the 7 different countries. To date, only the first semester of the campaign has been completed, with 3,301 students signed up to the campaign. Learnings from the 2017/18 academic year have been taken into consideration, to ensure the 2018/19 campaign is even more successful.
• The Student Switch Off+ (SSO+) campaign was successfully launched and completed as a pilot project, in Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania and the UK for the 2017/18 academic year. The campaign had a huge reach with 25,036 students reached via email with energy efficiency advice (Energy Performance Certificates and energy efficiency labelling), information on energy bills, and energy saving tips. This information was further disseminated through social media and face-to-face activities on campus. It has been estimated that the campaign resulted in 2.9 GWhs of primary energy saving.
• The SSO+ campaign was successfully launched in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania, and the UK for the 2018/19 academic year. To date, only the first semester of the campaign has been completed; engagement and reach statistics will be available in summer 2019.
• Monitoring and evaluation activities to capture the impact of the SSO and SSO+ campaigns took place, including pre/post intervention surveys, focus groups, and energy data calculations. Additionally, in-depth research was carried out to understand the experiences of students living in the private rented sector (more than 3,500 students participated), and landlords renting their properties to students (more than 400 landlords participated) about their perceived importance of the energy efficiency of their property, their motivations to improve the quality of their property, and their experience with students as tenants.
• The results and impact of the SAVES 2 project has already been disseminated at 10 sessions at 9 conferences, including high-profile ones such as the BEHAVE 2018 conference.

Final results

The work done through the SSO+ campaign, with students living in the private rented sector is of particular importance because it is an under-supported group of the population that suffer from fuel poverty, with limited research carried out in this area. Through the SAVES 2 project, we have carried out extensive research with students and landlords to understand the causes and implications of fuel poverty on that demographic.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.saves-project.eu.