Hello everyone, good afternoon. I am Renuka Thakore from the University of Central

Lancashire, United Kingdom. I am currently doing my Phd in Environment Management

at Centre for Sustainable Development. The paper I am going to present today is the

outcome of preliminary data collection and analysis carried out through survey

questionnaire. Professor Jack Goulding is my Director of Studies and Dr. Mark Toogood is

my co-supervisor. They are also co-authors for this paper. They join me in thanking you

for giving us this wonderful opportunity to present our paper in the conference.

The United Kingdom building sector has been challenged to retrofit a enormous stock of

existing buildings in order to increase its energy efficiency and adaptive capacity for

climate change impacts. Addressing such challenges will require systematic structural

changes in both, socio-technical and socio-political infrastructure. As a result, the UK

Government has implemented programmes for improved energy efficiency involving

various stakeholders, however the progress is very slow. Thus the topic of today’s

presentation is Barriers to Improved Energy Efficiency Measures in the UK Housing

Sector: Stakeholders’ Perspectives

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First section introduces two points of departure for the study. It then explains aim,

objectives and methodology. Then it discusses preliminary results and suggests further

research course. It ends with the conclusion.

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Section 1 sets out two points of departure.

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First is the energy efficiency concepts and conditions. ‘Improved energy efficiency’,

‘energy efficiency gap’ and 5-IN conditions. Based on a number of studies including

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) (2009), the study has

adopted the concept of ‘improved energy efficiency’. The definition given by Action

Plan for Energy-efficient Housing (APEEH) (2011) is: achieving reduced energy

intensities in residential services without com-promising the well-being of the

residents or the environment.

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Also, improved energy efficiency in housing has demonstrated to contribute towards

societal sustainable development bringing integrated benefits of environmental,

economic, social, development and technical benefits.

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Just as the housing sectors worldwide, the UK housing sector holds the potential of

delivering 60% of carbon emissions reduction through a range of existing energy

efficient technologies and low carbon strategies. Purposive investments in terms of

capital, time and effort have potential to achieve these benefits. Also, it is important to

invest in energy efficiency because a large stock of the UK housing constitutes of existing

housing that are energy intensive and offer immense opportunity for installations of

energy efficiency measures. However, the technological and non-technological

challenges castigated investment low than actually needed creating an energy efficiency

gap.

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Improved energy efficiency can be achieved only if technology and knowledge, both are

implemented. This can be harnessed by interrelated five key drivers, namely investment,

information, innovations, incentives and initiative. Investment is needed in terms of

money, time and effort to improve energy efficiency. Without investing in energy

efficiency, the improvement results are not possible to realise. Information is important

condition for energy efficiency because without information, stakeholders would not be

able to invest in energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is possible only if the innovative

action is taken towards it. Incentive is also an essential condition for energy efficiency

because without incentive such as cost savings or carbon emissions reduction,

stakeholders would not invest in energy efficiency. Lastly, only initiative for energy

efficiency would make it possible. Thus these 5-INs are very essential conditions to

foster energy efficiency installations.

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Second, the housing regime that is challenged by the energy efficiency problem is

characteristically a conservative (locked-in) slow progressing regime embedded

with firms, technologies, and users.

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Also, it is part of a wider and complex system having linked processes. The

analyses of dynamics responsible for successful historical socio-technical

transitions highlight the role of innovative niches and interactive transition

mechanism. It demonstrates that successful niches have the potential to provide

solutions to the problems of the existing regime.

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Given this, multidisciplinary approaches drawing from macro- and micro-

economics, organisational behaviour and capacities, human behaviour and

behavioural change, efficient markets, policies, and consumption patterns and

consumers’ behaviour, are advocated to foster combined application of

knowledge and technology in energy efficient housing.

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However, only concentrating on the development of well-equipped innovative

technological niches is not enough. Technological niches should be replicated and

“co-evolved” with regulatory niches, user practices’ niches contributing to social

evolution to deliver the sustainable change.

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And the success of combined technology and knowledge implementation of

energy efficiency measures would depend on the existing socio-political

dimensions; capacity of current regulations, capacity of institutional governance

in addressing new challenges; and the perception of responsible actors dealing

with its challenges and opportunities (Golubchikov and Deda, 2012).

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Given this, for a smooth and sustainable transition to housing sustainability, it would

require various stakeholders, national policymakers, institutional and individual decision-

makes and industrial experts, to take decisions depending on the prevailing conditions

of 5-INs within socio-technical, political and institutional local and global context. For

such policymaking and management activities, institutions and individuals should

possess capacities to assess current prevailing conditions and supporting policies,

identify barriers preventing their establishment and overcome them for

improved energy efficiency.

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This section is about the aim, objectives and methodology used for the study.

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This study aims to contribute to the knowledge about various barriers

experienced in establishing the 5-INs, all of which are interrelated in number of

ways.

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Identify housing stakeholders those are concerned with the immediate impact of energy

efficiency.

Identify most important barriers hampering the growth of housing energy efficiency.

Identify local and regional influences on the decision-making for the housing energy

efficiency.

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After identifying housing providers, consumers and regulators as relevant stakeholders, a descriptive survey questionnaire with measurable objectives was designed, tested and distributed. The survey included a list of barriers for each 5-INs. The participants were asked to rate their importance using a likert scale.

Online survey method was used to distribute, collect, store and analyse the responses. The demographic of randomly selected participants was exclusively throughout the England. The study was conducted during last quarter of the year 2013. Only 108 responses were received. Each response and category was coded and exported to SPSS Statistics 21 for analysis. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability test and Principal component analysis was carried out for meaningful interpretation of the responses.

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This section would discuss results.

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The Cronbach’s alpha was computed to be 0.938, which means that the

responses were reliable.

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A principal component analysis using orthogonal rotation, varimax, was carried out to

identify significant factors or components represented by the responses. The KMO,

Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin value was found to be 0.807 which was considerable acceptable.

Also, Barrlett’s test of sphericity demonstrated that the responses were suitable for the

analysis. 10 components having eigenvalues greater than 1 and cumulative variance of

70.0140% were considered important components represented by the responses.

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Respondents identified 33 important barriers while considering decision making for

energy efficiency measures. Empowerment, engagement & citizen-focus included issues

such as knowledge, awareness, effective communication as well as time required for the

information. Thus increasing education about energy efficiency for all stakeholders

would be useful in making informed decisions. The second issue is shared ownership &

increased accountability. This includes developing leadership, proactively participating in

management activities, priority given to energy efficiency as well as symmetry of

accountability, and coordination between internal and external stakeholders.

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Next, it highlights the issues of shared responsibility and improved accountability. It

shows that scrutiny and monitoring is also important. Participatory and representative

governance structure is important too.

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Financing & management issues such as lack of funds, upfront costs and lack of support

are areas of importance. Another component highlighted was that the governance

should be participatory & representative.

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Lastly, the components such as pro-environmental consumer behaviour, tenant

involvement & empowerment, and responsiveness were found important too.

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Finally, I would summarise the study. The study was to identify a number of important

barriers experienced by the housing stakeholders in considering energy efficiency

measures. A mixed methodology was applied to distribute, collect and analysis the data.

SPSS Statistics 21 was used for analysis. Reliability test and principal component analysis

carried out for identify a common components lying within the variables. Several

components will be subjected for further studies through case studies methodology.

Focus is given to improving information, governance, regulations and policies, creating

incentives, taking initiatives and taking innovating actions, with respect to local and

regional socio-technical, political and organisational context.

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Thank you very much for listening. I would welcome any questions if you have.

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