the Carbon Challenge

Energy Saving Trust Parliamentary Reception at the House of Commons - caption competition!

We held a parliamentary reception to showcase our work and launch Energy Saving Week (19 – 25 October) which is this week. For more info on the week see our website.  

The reception was attended by a good mix of politicians and stakeholders from the public, private and voluntary sectors.  David Kidney MP, Parliamentary under Secretary of State at DECC and the Conservative Shadow Minister for Climate Change Greg Barker MP addressed the event.  

The evening also included a short video, shot by one of the families taking part in the Energy Saving Week ‘waste detectives experiment, who also said a few words about their experience.  We had a variety of Energy Saving Experts on hand to talk to guests about Green Communities, Pay As You Save Home Energy Pilots, Water Pilots, Microgeneration, Housing Programme and our work with Local Authorities.  

We had lots of comical photos from the event, so I thought a caption competition might be fun. (I’ve left out the more embarrassing ones!) Send your suggested captions by adding a comment and the best will be published with the photos!

 
Photo 1 David Topping, Non-executive Director of EON and EST, and our Chief operating Officer, Fraser Winterbottom, are engrossed in conversation – but what could they be talking about?

Photo 2 Justine Prain, Head of Services Delivery, works her magic on fellow colleague Simon Green and Andrew George MP

Photo 3 Could my position be threatened?

A four day week – the future of energy saving?

According to an article I read recently (Time Magazine, October 5 ‘Thank God it’s Thursday’ by Bryan Walsh), shifting to a four day workweek could save energy, cut traffic and make you happier.

 

A year ago the US state of Utah mandated a four day week for most state employees, closing offices on Fridays to reduce energy costs. It’s certainly an interesting way to save energy – not only in the office, but from travelling to and from the office too. Our London office is pretty green in terms of transport – with most people using public transport and those that don’t cycling or walking, but driving to central London wouldn’t be a sensible option!

 

The state of Utah found that its compressed workweek resulted in a 13% reduction in energy use and estimated that employees saved as much as $6 million in gasoline costs. Those are pretty significant savings! I’m sure this scheme would be popular here!

 

Any volunteers?

The Energy Saving Trust at the 2009 Conservative Party Conference

Guest blog from Eddie Hyams, Chairman of the Energy Saving Trust

Last week I attended a number of fringe events at the Conservative Party Conference where we participated, alongside a wide range of organisations at the Climate Clinic. It was a busy few days and we took the opportunity to hold quite a number of meetings with policy makers and opinion formers all of which were thought provoking and of real value.

I enjoyed chairing the Energy Saving Trust’s own fringe event ‘’Citizen Action – cracking the politics of climate change’’. The subject was tackled by three interesting and thought provoking speakers, Philip Blond, Professor Erik Bichard and Ben Page which led to a lively question time discussion.

Philip Sellwood our CEO attended a timely breakfast meeting on Smart Grids and Smart Meters and this event neatly coincided with the release of our own research on customer attitudes to smart meters. This emphasised again the importance of a compelling and clear displays in every home. At the same time I participated in an interesting breakfast briefing arranged by the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy to discuss Campaigning for Energy Efficiency in Local Communities.

Another well timed event in the light of Ofgem’s newly published report on Energy and Prices in the next decade was a Social Markets Foundation event on ‘’Guaranteeing an efficient, secure energy supply for the UK’’  As you might expect, in my contribution I emphasised the vital role of energy efficiency in and around the home.

SMARTEST WAY TO DISPLAY

We launched a report today ‘The Smart Way to Display’ that explores consumer preferences for home energy display functionality.

Read the report on our website

Read about it on BBC online

The national roll-out of smart meters is a great opportunity to improve consumer understanding of energy consumption and to encourage more efficient behaviour. In-home displays offer an important way of engaging and informing consumers about their energy consumption. However, to be most effective such displays must present meaningful information in an accessible and understandable form.

The research project used a series of focus groups to evaluate different home energy display designs. The research identifies the need for a minimum functional specification to be introduced, to ensure that displays provide the most useful information to consumers. The research also sets out the basis for this minimum specification.

We held a roundtable event on Friday 2nd October with display manufacturers, energy companies, consumer groups, academics and others to discuss the findings.

There was some discussion over whether smart meters were really the best way to display information about energy use and if some people might find it easier for example to look at the information online or on their iphone, such as my grown up kids. While access to more detailed information from lots of different sources is great – I don’t have an iphone and looking up my electricity usage online won’t give me immediate feedback on how much energy my kettle uses. A stand alone display linked to a smart meter in the home would mean instant access to real-time feedback data that consumers need and they would be available to everyone. Those most interested who want to learn more would also then be able to take advantage of online services if they wished. 

We also had two experts on smart meters from The Netherlands (Henk van Elburg from SenterNovem and Ivo de la Rive Box from Home Automation Europe) who spoke about what makes a good smart meter. It was very encouraging to hear that they had come to similar conclusions and liked the minimum specification set out in the report. It’s really important we listen to real peoples concerns in this debate ahead of those who stand to gain!