Recruiting participants. Experts in behavioural sciences in E3D-Environment have designed a coaching strategy and produced communication contents. Interviews were conducted by the territorial partners with the technical and organisational support from E3D-Environment. This phase led to the registration of 6.254 households: 1.408 in L’Alcúdia, 1.441 in Cefalù, 744 in Ghent and 3.113 in Warsaw.
- 93% have given an email or a phone number
- 86 % have accepted to try practical energy-saving actions to do at home during 1 month.
- On average, people chose 1.8 actions, whereas most people chose 2 actions. Trends are similar among the 4 cities.
Coaching. For about 18 months, participants were contacted multiple times by email and by the phone advisors mandated by the territorial partners. The coaching contents were designed by E3D’s experts in behavioural sciences.
- More than 80% of the participants were regularly contacted and gave feedback on their actions (every 3 months).
- 97% of all participants decided to carry out at least 1 energy-saving action.
- 90% of those who gave feedback carried out successfully at least 1 of the chosen actions.
Community-based strategies. To promote a sense of community by introducing a common goal, the territorial partners have organized 2 collective challenges. They aimed at contacting a maximum of households in a limited time and so to give a good dynamic to the project. For example, 78% of participants in Warsaw (2.428 participants) were called in 1 month! L’Alcudia has organized a celebration of the summer challenge to provide a better visibility.
Generally speaking, these challenges were popular and brought a good dynamic. This confirms that the project enables the local authority to contact and mobilize a significant part of its population.
Assessment of the results. Control groups have been created in the 4 areas. The territorial partners tested various data collection channels. The collected data was of different size, type and quality, which necessitated individualised approach to methods used for processing and analysing data in each location. This has to be taken into consideration for the interpretation of project results.
Dissemination activities. Many actions have been carried out: website, newsletter, participation brokerage events, press releases... The project has been presented to various cities interested for replication. A twin project has been launched in Marseille.
The implementation has driven the consortium to define good practices for future behavioural change campaigns. Recommendations are for the attention of planners and managers of behavioural programmes, data analysis or behavioural scientists, energy efficiency experts, European Commission, EU Member States, national and international research funding bodies as well as research organisations.
Project management. Project governance has been deployed as planned. The following meetings have been held: 1 Kick-off Meeting, 8 Management Boards, Monthly calls, 3 Partners Meetings, 2 Advisory Boards.
