Start date: 1 May, 2015
- End date: 1 January, 2018
Introduction
The building industry and the built environment are one of the largest contributors to energy and materials use worldwide and buildings throughout their lifecycle account for circa 40% of the total energy use in Europe and the UK. As both building stock renewal and renovation rates are very slow, the sector has been argued to need rapid system level innovation. The research project focuses on building and housing sector innovation in the UK that also delivers increased energy demand reduction potential. It pays particular attention to systemic innovation by focusing on whole house retrofits and zero carbon new built houses. System-level innovations in residential buildings comprise groups of interrelated technologies (e.g. thermal insulation, low energy windows, minimal air leakage, heat recovery, heat pumps, passive solar etc.) and interconnecting services, such as a combination of a new technology and maintenance offered to consumers and/or consumer oriented services. The projects takes a sociotechnical approach to innovation processes and pays particular attention to drivers and barriers, and the impact of intermediary actors in the overall transition.
Aims
(1) to generate deeper knowledge on innovation-based change processes and their drivers and barriers from a sociotechnical perspective and (2) to pay particular attention to the influence of intermediating actors and policy changes in these processes. In addition, the project aims (3) to provide policy-relevant knowledge on how to promote sustainable transition in the housing and building sector.
Research questions
- How have low energy housing niches developed in the UK? What is their current status (emergent, early stage diffusion, diffusion)? What key drivers and barriers exist and how is the development of these niches conditioned by the surrounding political, institutional and industrial regime(s) and landscape?
- What is the impact of intermediaries in low energy housing transitions at niche and regime levels? What drivers, barriers and other conditioning factors do the intermediaries influence, when and how? What is the role of intermediation in the establishment and governance of low energy housing transitions?
- What actions could be taken to establish stronger intermediary organisations/networks and to improve their performance?
Methodology
The project uses qualitative method and data triangulation to deliver insights into the transition towards low energy housing. It combines systematic literature review, documents analysis and interviews with more specific case studies of innovative examples of zero carbon new build and whole house retrofits.
Case studies
Retrofit cases:
Southampton Street
The Nook
Wichelo Place
New build cases:
Grantham Road
Hartington Road
One Brighton
Stakeholder workshop co-organised with the Energy Saving Trust on low energy housing policy, London, 9 February 2017
Dr Paula Kivimaa and Dr Mari Martiskainen organised a workshop with the Energy Saving Trust on ‘Low Carbon Housing: How policy needs to change’. The event, which was attended by stakeholders from government, housing industry and campaigning organisations aimed to identify and discuss new directions for low energy housing policy in the UK.
Read Suzanne Fisher-Murray’s blog to find out more.
Dialogue session at the BIEE Conference, Oxford, 21-22 September
Paula Kivimaa was part of a panel at the BIEE Conference on ‘Government policy to stimulate sustainable energy innovation’.
SPRU 50th Anniversary Conference, Brighton, 7-9 September
Paula Kivimaa organised two research sessions on ‘Intermediary actors in innovation and energy system transition’. One of the two sessions featured a paper by Dr Kivimaa and Dr Mari Martiskainen on ‘Intermediaries and champions in low energy housing innovation – lessons from case studies in the UK’. The other session featured a paper by Paula Kivimaa co-authored with Wouter Boon, Sampsa Hyysalo and Laurens Klerkx titled ‘From a systematic review to a dynamic typology of intermediaries in transitions’.
4S/EASST Conference paper presentation, Barcelona, Spain 31 August - 3 Sept
Paula Kivimaa presented a paper co-authored with Mari Martiskainen on ‘Long-winded UK zero carbon building transition: From acceleration to halt?’.
Paper presented at Energy Cultures Conference, Wellington, New Zealand 6-7 July
Mari Martiskainen presented a paper on “Low energy housing transition in the UK – the role of intermediaries in innovation processes”. To find out more about CIED’s activities at the conference read
Suzanne Fisher-Murray’s article.
Keynote at OECD Innovation and Technology Policy Working Group Meeting, Paris 21 June
Paula Kivimaa was invited to give a keynote at the OECD Innovation and Technology Policy Working Group Meeting in Paris on ‘Creative destruction or mere niche support? Innovation policy mixes for sustainability transitions’.
Paper presented at World Building Congress, Tampere, Finland 30 May - 3 June
Chairing at the European Environmental Evaluators Network Forum
In September 2015, Dr Paula Kivimaa attended the European Environmental Evaluators Network Forum in Florence, Italy, where she chaired a session on the evaluation of policy innovation and experiments.
Presentation on consumer behaviour and energy demand for the Brazilian energy regulator ANEEL
In August 2015, Dr Mari Martiskainen was invited to present her work at a conference in Brazil entitled “Co-operation as a tool to promote innovation and energy efficiency in the electricity sector.