SAVE ENERGY project’s final event, SAVE ENERGY Conference was arranged as a two day event in Helsinki, Finland on 16-17 June 2011. The venue was Helsinki City Hall’s beautiful and historical Banquet hall.

The conference was focusing on the SAVE ENERGY project results:

• Increasing energy efficiency in public buildings through ICT
• Living Lab Methodology in the context of SAVE ENERGY
• User behaviour transformation / serious games.

The conference had 111 enrolled participants from several countries including company representatives, researchers, project partners and several others.

During the conference a company exhibition was arranged. Organisations related to the projects or supporting the themes of the event had a stand in the exhibition.

In the end of the Friday’s programme also a visit to Helsinki pilot school (Pihkapuisto) was arranged.

Day 1

The First day of the event was opened by the Deputy Mayor of Helsinki, Mr. Pekka Sauri and he was followed by Dr. Álvaro Oliveira (Alfamicro), the Project Coordinator, who presented the Project in the context of European Union energy and innovation policies, referring that the EU is becoming increasingly dependent on energy imports, which leads to an unbalance in the economy and in the balance of payments (export/import) and that nowadays, the EU imports more than 50% of its energy, amounting to a negative trade balance of about €240 billion every year. Further, these imports come from regions that are politically unstable and often use their energy resources as a geopolitical weapon. The EU Energy policy aims at achieving three complementary and mutually reinforcing objectives: security of supply, sustainability and competitiveness. The EU is investing significantly in new technologies related to renewable energies and has outlined a goal that by 2020, 20% of total energy consumption in the EU shall be renewable energies, reducing CO2 emissions in 20% and increasing energy efficiency by 20%, which was the main focus of the SAVE ENERGY project.

The following speaker was Director-General Helena Säteri from the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, with a presentation on Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings, where she referred the need for regulation to follow up on energy efficiency best practices, as well as Eco Design, taking into account lifecycle analysis of building materials (like the current Finnish National Building Code for new buildings, and the 2020 Roadmap for building renovations, which is being drafted). She also referred the importance of public procurement that takes into account energy efficiency parameters (Green Procurement), which currently encompasses 70% of Finnish public procurement and will cover all public procurement by 2015, but always taking into account the cost-benefit aspect. As a final note Helena Säteri considered that it is crucial that all stakeholders involved in real estate (project, licensing, and construction) must be properly educated towards building energy efficiency.

The following speaker, Satu Hassi, Member of the European Parliament, referred that Energy Efficiency is at the heart of many discussions at the European Parliament and it is a crucial tool to tackle climate change by reducing energy consumption in the most cost-effective way – what she considered to be “a low hanging fruit”, but there is a real need to make citizens more aware of energy efficient behaviours.

Panel 1 – Cities’ Strategic Role in Increasing Energy Efficiency

In this panel the views of political authorities from cities where SAVE ENERGY pilots are located were presented – cities that have very different environmental, social and economic differences. All speakers were unanimous when considering that it is up to public authorities to give the example to the population, by implementing energy efficient policies at public buildings, improve public lighting, mobility and civil servant education and awareness for best practices on energy saving.

Panel 2 – Experts’ panel – SAVE ENERGY results in common framework

This panel was composed by three renowned experts in their field: Prof. Paulo Ferrão from IST-MIT-Portugal presented his view on energy efficiency and defended the need to create innovative business models for utilities, encompassing new services and products for users, and ended on the important note that investing in Energy Efficiency is investing in people, education and European R&D.

Prof. Seija Kulkki from Aalto University presented the role of Living Labs as pre-implementation ecosystems and shared some examples on how can co-creation through the involvement of citizens and users empower and enhance decisions and create stronger community bonds.

Prof. Eva Heiskanen from the Finish National Consumer Research Center referred that in order to promote user behaviour transformation we need to understand energy use and make it tangible for users. She noted that many of current buildings functional architecture is not energy-friendly: it hides energy consuming sources and their interface from users. She defended that through serious games, users can get a stronger feeling of engagement with energy saving behaviours, contributing to the awareness of players. Also, to truly achieve sustainable User Behaviour Transformation, one must have a social and physical environment that encourages such behaviour.

The panel discussion lead to some very interesting considerations, particularly that the cross-border activities that have been developed within the Project, engaging SMEs, Universities and Municipalities from different countries in sharing experiences and working together is a major contribution to the creation of a European identity and thus a valid contribution towards strengthening European partnerships and a stronger Europe.

Panel 3 – SAVE ENERGY Advisory Board

Prof. Luís Mira Amaral, the chair of the SAVE ENERGY Advisory Board and former Minister of Industry and Energy in Portugal, presented his view on the subject of enabling energy efficiency in Europe and its obstacles, such as the existence of Market Failures in sectors where competition is scarce such as the Energy sector. In these markets, there is the need to use clever public policies and regulation in order to assure the best interests of the citizens are protected. It was referred that Energy Efficiency is an issue that must be acted upon at the local level, such as with the support of municipalities – closer to the citizens. Also, in many cases there is a Financial Incentive Gap: this means that there is a decoupling between the user’s energy consumption habits and energy billing at workplaces: users in general are not aware of the energy cost of their behaviour.

He made the case that there is an opportunity for ICT to cover these needs, empowering users and allowing for new services and tools, such as smart grids, which allow for innovative – bilateral – relations between energy consumers and Utilities. A new energy consumption paradigm, based on the Internet framework, can be devised, where users can be consumers or producers and can have a more active role supported by new business models.

Prof. Peter Lund from Aalto University referred that one way to promote energy efficiency in public buildings is through Green Procurement and the utilization of Rotation Funds, meaning that departments can be encouraged to save energy if the financial savings obtained from lower energy consumption can be kept and be put to other uses.

Pedro Sampaio Nunes (SUITCH) argued that Energy Efficiency is the best cost-benefit way to obtain CO2 reduction, and that there is a need to further unbundle the energy market, allowing for new segments in the chain of value where Energy Efficiency can be an asset (allowing for new markets for ESCOs, for example).

Prof. Joaquim Borges Gouveia (University of Aveiro) referred that early life education on energy efficiency is a strong way to increase awareness, and that children bring energy efficient behaviours to their families, therefore involving them in the process. He also argued that due to capital costs of Energy Efficiency investments for building and technology refurbishing, ESCOs have a center role to play in increasing Europe’s Energy Efficiency.

Day 2

The second day of the conference, dedicated to the Project pilots and results, began with the general overview of the project provided by Dr. Álvaro Oliveira from Alfamicro, the project coordinator, who referred that the SAVE ENERGY project addressed the challenge of promoting energy efficiency through user behaviour transformation based on the use of ICTs. SAVE ENERGY aimed to transform the energy consumption behaviour of people in public buildings (civil servants, citizens and policy makers) by deploying simple ICT-based solutions to acquire, process and display real-time information. Informative and engaging energy use information is made available, enabling individuals to more fully understand the impact of their actions from both an environmental and financial perspective.

The knowledge and experience gained with the understanding of new socio-technical aspects related to energy saving behaviour transformation via user-driven open-innovation environments – Living Labs – has led to new ICT-based services, potential new business models, recommendations for energy efficiency public policies, and development of a standard methodology for energy use behaviour transformation.

The reductions in energy consumption derived from user behaviour transformation have proved that a considerable part of energy use is directly affected by the decisions that individuals take during their daily activities, whether these decisions are voluntary or the result of behaviour patterns that have been cultivated for long periods of time due to installed operational paradigms. The savings that derived from user behaviour transformation show that, even in buildings with thermally efficient construction materials and advanced energy management systems, there is a significant potential for reduction of energy consumption.

This was followed by a presentation by Asko Kippo from Metropolia University on User Behaviour Transformation at the Helsinki Pilot, and how the whole community, from school staff, professors, children and their families can become involved in an engaging way to promote Energy Efficiency as well as the remarkable results obtained from the Pilots Working Group, involving all pilots and led by the Helsinki pilot, that was established at the beginning of the project and had a very important role in defining the methodologies in line with the solutions integration to meet the specific requirements for each individual pilot. The pilots’ implementation followed the Living Lab methodology not only at the local level but also at the cross-border interaction level. SAVE ENERGY stakeholders were totally engaged in the co-creation of new processes and behaviours.

Panel 4 – “SAVE ENERGY Pilots”

The pilot owners and technological partners from Helsinki, Lisbon, Leiden, Manchester and Lulea presented their experience throughout the project: the technical solutions, implementation process and results obtained as well as best practices identified, tackled obstacles and lessons learned. The representatives from the municipalities announced their plans for further exploitation of the results from the SAVE ENERGY project, which was considered to be an example to be followed. The discussion panel led to interesting considerations on how to promote energy efficiency at public buildings and how to motivate the various stakeholders involved.

The pilots were committed to implement energy efficiency policies and to cooperate for the evaluation of innovative ICT-based solutions covering a varied range of building envelopes, usage patterns, functional programs and available technologies. From office spaces to public schools, the building management systems of the chosen spaces made available information about heating, air conditioning, ventilation, lighting, and other equipment or devices to be either distributed in real time or fed into the serious game. The real time information technologies used in the pilots also allowed some level of control based on preferences, past knowledge and energy saving targets.

Panel 5 – “User Behaviour Transformation – Tools to motivate and sustain user engagement”

This panel encompassed the methodologies used for planning User Behaviour Transformation and the role of the SAVE ENERGY Serious Games. Arne Gylling (LTU-CDT) presented the SAVE ENERGY process that was created during the project and that can be applied when planning User Behaviour Transformation at a service building level, and Gregg Woodall from Salford University illustrated the Toolbox devised during the project and is comprised of all the options to be used when implementing a User Behaviour Transformation process. A number of slightly different behaviour change techniques were used throughout the pilots enabling a wide range of lessons to be learnt and culminating in a best practice generic methodology. This methodology was described as a stepwise process, supplemented with an energy behaviour change toolbox to identify the most appropriate techniques for a targeted behaviour transformation programme.

The UBT Process and Toolbox are based on the results from pilot testing and have been developed through a series of meetings and workshops in the project. It should however be adapted to each case in order to gain maximum effect. In order to be applied, one must have knowledge about their “pilot”. This includes facts about the building, energy management and final users. Ben Cowley from Aalto-CKIR presented the SAVE ENERGY Serious Games and demonstrated their functionalities and their pivotal role in aligning the different stakeholders’ expectations, thus contributing to a collective mind-set that facilitated cooperation. The game was recognized and awarded as the best non-professional functional learning game by Ludus Project.

Panel 6 – “SAVE ENERGY – Creating new business models”

In this panel Prof. José Basílio (ISA), Lauri Hietaniemi (Green Net) and Veli-Pekka Niitamo (Finpro) debated on the possibilities of new business models for energy efficiency and the role of SMEs in creating innovative solutions, products and services for the public users and how they can be exported to the private home user, as well as some of the risks and opportunities of the sector.