Subject: Community co-design, metered energy savings and more 📉

Community-led co-design, metered energy savings and more

Throughout June, there has been a diverse body of work taking place. We have released of our latest report 'Energise Westwood' detailing our work to engage the Westwood community through energy advice. Taking a co-design approach to work with community members themselves, to meet their needs, this report details the activities which took place over the course of the project.

You can also learn more about our work on 'metered energy savings' and the benefits this could bring to the financial backers of retrofits works in demonstrating the impact their interventions are having, potentially opening up new avenues for funding retrofits.

The next month (or more accurately the next couple of days) is likely to bring some significant changes on the national political level, and we are watching the ongoing events closely as they relate to our objectives of supporting people and communities to make the the radical reductions in home carbon emissions necessary to avoid runaway climate change.

Where possible we are providing input and interventions to drive policy in order to have the biggest impact possible in reducing emissions with people and communities at the heart of this project, so that we can have clean energy for all.

Co-designing energy advice services with underrepresented communities

A photo of various printed energy advice issues laid out on a wooden table with two cups of tea

A new Carbon Co-op report shares findings from a research project undertaken in Oldham. The work seeks to better understand culturally specific issues relevant to Westwood’s predominately Bangladeshi community, and what an effective energy advice service could look like.

This community, like many others in the UK, are often considered ‘hard to reach’. There is a growing understanding that these communities, rather than being hard to reach, are often not reached out to. This research seeks to better understand and connect with the community in Westwood, and to look at what the design of energy advice services with (rather than for) the community could look like.

Read the report

A role for metered energy data in community-led lending

A graphic showing a graph which is stylised to look like a house with the words 'Generate revenue-grade energy savings estimates for home retrofits with smart meter data only' overlayed.

This article from Helen Grimshaw, summarises the potential role for metered energy data in community-led lending products, a role which is being explored by Carbon Co-op and other partners on a project funded under the Green Homes Finance Accelerator programme

Using a method like Metered Energy Savings (where metered data is available) could allow us to more accurately quantify the energy savings achieved in reality. For parties like One Stop Shops and contractors, if savings were much less than anticipated, it could act as a useful trigger for investigating issues with installation quality or occupant understanding and use of the systems. It’s potentially a much more honest and insightful metric, which chimes with a lot of the values we share across partners.

Learn more about this exploration

People Powered Retrofit: Partner Spotlight

Carbon Co-op's sister co-operative, People Powered Retrofit have been sharing spotlights on organisations that they are partnering with to deliver the economic benefits of retrofit to local communities. Their collaboration has been working together to create jobs, support small and local businesses, reduce energy bills and build community resources.

Learn more about their partnership with Exeter Community Energy and the opportunities for further collaboration that People Powered Retrofit offer.

Learn more about retrofit partnerships and collaborations

What we are reading...

Analysis: Cutting the ‘green crap’ has added £22bn to UK energy bills since 2015

Carbon Brief have produced an insightful analysis of the cost to UK energy bill payers from the drop off in insulation installations over the since 2015.

Read the analysis

A picture of the front page of the Sun in 2013, with the headline 'Get rid of the green crap'.

In the community

A photo of a house with patio doors. Outside you can see a heat pump unit and inside, in a small cupboard there is a heat battery.

Thermal Storage Batteries

Carbon Co-op community members discuss their experiences with and thoughts about Thermal Storage (phase-change) batteries. Do you have an experience or thoughts to share, or just want to learn more?

Join the conversation

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Subject: Community co-design, metered energy savings and more 📉

Community-led co-design, metered energy savings and more

What we are reading...

In the community