Project: Motivating and Enabling Private Home Owners for Energy Efficient Refurbishment of Single and Double Occupancy Houses [ENEF_H] |
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Project Head: Project Team: Duration:
Funding:
funding
programme Social-Ecological
Research
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More than a quarter of the German energy consumption is required for space
heating and the provision of warm water in private households. With an
energy efficient refurbishment of the building stock the use of energy and
CO2-emissions could be reduced by up to 80%. Yet, until now annually only
1% of the building stock is being modernised in spite of numerous
subsidies available and advisory services at hand. A goal of 3% seems to
be technically and financially feasible. In order to achieve the ambitious
political goal, the annual rehabilitation rate must be increased
considerably.
In particular, the 14.5 million single and double occupancy houses in Germany are holding a considerable potential to save energy and cut down CO2-emissions. But until now many private home owners appear to be reluctant to energy efficient refurbishment. Besides insufficient market transparency the lack of information and inadequate incentives for investments constitute major obstacles in this respect. To tackle with these obstacles the transdisciplinary research project proposes to develop an integrated policy and advisory approach aiming to activate and motivate private home owners to carry out energy efficient measures to modernise their houses. According to social-ecological consumption research, energy efficient refurbishment of the building stock is considered a strategic consumption decision which is marked by a complex interplay of economic, social and symbolic factors. The consideration of available options for taking action does not only depend on objective economic criteria but is also strongly framed by subjective perceptions being defined by the social situation, the values of the respective life style group, the personal willingness to take risks and negotiations within households and social networks. In order to explore the interplay of inhibitory and supporting motivational alliances and situational factors shaping the refurbishment decision an empirical survey among private home owners will be carried out. Based on a segmentation of particular target groups an integrative policy and advisory approach will be developed which addresses the complex decision situation of home owners’ linking advisory services, policy instruments and marketing in an innovative way. On the one hand, the project will provide recommendations for an advancement of existing policy instruments, with which the different needs of the particular target groups can be addressed more efficiently. On the other hand, a toolkit will be developed enabling professional advisors, modernisation services, and campaigners to achieve a target group orientated creation of advisory offers, services and social marketing. In this process best practice experiences from selected EU states will be considered. The research project will be carried out in a transdiciplinary process, enrolling practitioners from the fields of energy advisory services, consumer information, campaigning and energy policy. Cooperation partners are: Bremer Energie-Konsens GmbH, dena (Deutsche Energie Agentur) GmbH, GIH (Bundesverband Gebäudeenergieberater Ingenieure Handwerker), Haus und Grund (Bundesverband), Verbraucherzentrale Nordrhein-Westfalen and ZAB (Zukunftsagentur Brandenburg).
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Date 2008-06-02 |
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