As we begin to breathe life into the Enhance project, we have been engaging with key people in council and university buildings in order to scope out potential locations for our ‘living labs’. This has involved over 20 meetings, spanning various levels of management – including directors, facilities managers, and operations managers. Where possible, we have also undertaken building tours, discussing and identifying potential opportunities for behaviour-based energy savings. This has been a valuable experience. It is clear that, whilst similar issues are often encountered across sites, there are important idiosyncrasies that set these sites apart. These result from differences in building design, organisational factors, working culture, and individual personalities. We have already identified some promising opportunities, and are excited by the fact that establishing living labs in these buildings should facilitate exploration, learning, and innovation that is perceptive to site-specific behaviours surrounding energy use.
Surveying the ‘lab-scape’