Inspiring Citizens to Make Environmentally Conscious Decisions
The smart apartment building training program was created to bring wisdom not only in the form of smart technology and sensors, but also to help train conscious consumers. The training program is especially relevant in the context of SmartEnCity, a smart district, where residents get not only a smart living environment but also the expectations to manage it wisely, sustainably, and sustainably. Thus, the training focuses primarily on the everyday problems of the apartment building dweller (management of household expenses, use of a smart home, ensuring a good indoor climate, mobility, generation of waste, etc.) as well as on environmental issues in general.
Contributing to Climate Neutrality through Smart Retrofitting Projects
The trainings were carried out as part of a retrofitting plan in the SmartEnCity project. The objective is to drastically reduce the energy usage of the pilot area buildings by at least 60%. As a result of the renovation of the buildings, annual energy savings of over 6,000,000 kWh and CO2 savings of 922 tonnes per year will be achieved. In addition to energy savings, renewable energy is produced by PV panels installed on retrofitted buildings at about 471,000 kWh annually.
The smart home solutions introduced during the renovations, together with engagement and social innovation activities, have increased residents' awareness of energy use and raised the sense of community cohesion.
The social innovation experiments initiated by the SmartEnCity citizen engagement working group focus on innovative engagement experiments that are expected to affect the consumption behavior of people. Essentially, this means experimenting with social innovation models to facilitate behavioral change and mutual learning among pilot area and Tartu residents. In addition to the lecture series that was launched at the beginning of the project, the local consortium has also launched and completed its second social innovation experiment: awareness-raising through training active ambassadors (the so-called Smart House Training Program) among pilot area residents. More info on social innovation models here.
The core idea of the experiment is the fact that a city is not made smart only through applying smart solutions but by also cultivating smart citizens. The training program was developed to encourage pilot area residents to learn from each other by training so-called Ambassadors in every pilot area building who would be able to help and support their neighbours in various aspects of smart house and smart city living. The program consisted of five trainings, each focusing on an important smart living area:
- Home expenses and how to live in a smart apartment;
- Inside climate, ventilation and environmentally friendly interior design solutions;
- Waste, recycling and sustainability;
- Smart home system and the rights of an apartment owner;
- Green mobility solutions.
Context and Policy
Co-funding and results of the SmartEnCity project were used in preparing Tartu City energy and climate action plan “Tartu Energy 2030” that was published in 2021. Tartu City Sustainable Energy Management Action Plan for 2015–2020 laid down the goals of reducing energy consumption and carbon emission by 20% and consuming at least 20% of energy from renewable sources. The 2017 interim evaluation of the plan revealed that although the municipal sector managed to reach the goals set in the plan, the emission of greenhouse gases in the city as a whole increased. The main causes are an increase in emissions in private transport and electricity consumption in the private sector (mainly undertakings). On the one hand, it refers to growth in economic activity, which is of course positive, on the other, it highlights those groups of the community that require more cooperation to achieve the common goals. The activities designed in the sustainable energy management action plan were addressed to the municipal sector and there were no activities aimed at the private sector. The SmartEnCity has contributed to the shift of focus in Tartu Energy 2030, and it provided examples of wider engagement activities.
Key enablers
- Political: Recognition of the relevance to increase cooperation with the private sector and other communities to reach the climate goals. Commitment to the energy and climate action plan, and related projects.
- Economic: Financing for the activities
- Social: Residents are interested in learning about energy efficiency, capable of investing time and willing to support other residents.
- Technical: New technology has been or will be introduced, and social aspects are essential for achieving benefits.
Key Inhibiting Factors
- Political: Is there an existing mandate to develop and innovate for the residents? Or is only one-directional learning?
- Economic: what are the chances of the project continuing?
- Social: Was there a lack of motivation and/or incentives among the residents?
- Technical: Residents are seen merely as users, not co-developers or co-innovators.
Key Lessons Learnt
Main failures/barriers identified:
- Early-stage engagement is highly important and paves the way to success.
- Involve decision-makers from the beginning to keep the project smoothly running.
- Wider variety of dates for the training to ensure participation
- Input about possible topics should also be gathered from the residents
- More attractive enrolment in the programme
Scalability
After the analysis of the results, the replication potential of the social innovation experiment will be assessed and Tartu city will plan and conduct dissemination and replication activities. The project convincingly proved that the renovation of similar apartment buildings into a high ‘A’ energy class is completely feasible and the renovation practice in Tartu can be transferred to other European regions as well. [D4.3 Building retrofitting completed] Link