Energise Merton
2012
Sustainable Merton worked in partnership with the London Sustainability Exchange on a project to see how Merton residents could gain maximum benefit from numerous energy saving technologies. It also intended to ascertain the level of interest in the Green Deal.
One hundred households across the borough were visited by volunteer climate change champions who talked through appropriate home energy saving measures and their relative cost benefits, explaining government and local policies such as the Renewable Heat Incentive, Feed-in-Tariffs and the Green Deal.
The main results from the project showed that:
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75.9% of those surveyed were very conscious of energy saving
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The three most important factors in energy use in the home are: cost, the environment and being comfortable.
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Very few people knew much about the Green Deal
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The main barriers to reducing energy use were found to be: maintaining comfort, the cooperation of others and cost (the Green Deal will only help with the final point).
It was established that Sustainable Merton has strong outreach to homeowners across the borough through its social networks, which is vital for our role in educating residents about behavior change to reduce their energy use.
Most people’s houses are still quite inefficient, but people are keen to change their behaviour. People didn’t know that much about the Green Deal. They were quite concerned about the day to day practicalities; one woman even asked what would happen to her dogs. The campaign ended up going quite viral because the people we visited then went to and told their neighbours about it.
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Tom Walsh
Community Ambassador
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