Enchant - From A to Z

The content of this website will be updated throughout the project - Our work never stops..

The ENCHANT project, financed by Horizon 2020, has for the last three years conducted tests across Europe to see what works best to help people save energy, increase their use of public transport, or invest in more energy efficient or renewable energy sources. To be able to do this testing on such a massive scale, ENCHANT has relied on a combination of highly motivated and skilled user partners, and academic contributions pushing the research front.

The core idea in ENCHANT has been to test findings from the laboratory in real-world settings, still applying the same method that was developed for highly controllable environments, the Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT).

Needless to say, this has been both challenging and filled with compromises. But as the project is nearing its end, we now see that user partners have been able to reach millions of European inhabitants with messages aimed at affecting their energy behaviour, and that the academic partners have measured the effects of people receiving different types of messages.

In addition to saying something about the effects of interventions outside the laboratory, ENCHANT has also generated knowledge about how to communicate different kinds of messages to whom, the importance of cultural differences and infrastructure, the relevance of scale and, not least, the benefits of close collaboration and exchange of experiences.

In the ENCHANT A-Z, we explain the project, and present findings and lessons learned, and in the ENCHANT ENERGY WIZARD, we make this knowledge available and applicable for others. 

The Horizon Europe project ENCHANT – Energy Efficiency through behavior Change Transition – is a project that aims to support the energy transition by testing the impact of interventions that influence energy consumption behavior on a large scale across Europe. The interventions are developed, adapted and tested with the aim of releasing an energy efficiency potential in the public through behavioral change. Behavioral measures that have previously been shown to be effective in controlled laboratory environments will be tested by ENCHANT in real environments, on a large scale. The project is aimed at millions of European citizens. ENCHANT's interventions ae developed, controlled and tested in Turkey, Romania, Italy, Austria, Germany and Norway through the user partners in ENCHANT, which consist of voluntary organisations, energy companies and municipalities/county municipalities. ENCHANT will combine the data collected from the implementation of these interventions, with a re-analysis of already existing data, in an empirically informed decision-making tool for effective campaign design aimed at energy efficiency, relevant to a range of public and private actors (e.g. decision-makers).

Read more about the project on  enchant-project.eu. 

For testing the impact on such a massive scale – the project relies on and includes a large group of user-partners, including energy companies, municipalities, and environmental NGOs in seven European countries. ENCHANT will roll out interventions through the user partners’ already existing communication channels and thus tests their effects in real life settings.

Method: Established science-based behavioural intervention techniques previously tested in labs are in ENCHANT tested in real-life. We will do this in an unprecedented large-scale effort, targeting millions of European citizens, using a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) approach.

ENCHANT’s concept in short – say something about the importance of user partners choosing interventions and communication channels that are “natural” for them – at the same time as keeping scientific standards.  

Intervention: an act designed to affect and change peoples’ behaviour.  

The chosen interventions have all proven to have effects in experiments in the lab or in highly controlled environments. Will they prove to have effects also in real life settings?  

Enchant has seven different types of interventions.  

1. Feedback on own consumption: is what it says, it gives people feedback on their consumption behaviour. Example: smart meter app telling customers about their energy consumption.  
2. Social norms: gives people information about what are socially acceptable standards of behaviour, and other people’s behaviour. Example: informing people about other people’s investment behaviour on upgrading, and what is considered acceptable.   
3. Information (including Simplification): is what is says, the intervention is about providing people with information. Example: information telling people when they have access to energy from renewable sources.   
4. Monetary incentives: are based on to what degree people are motivated by saving money from energy-related behaviours. Example: will people choose public transport if gas gets more expensive.  
5. Commitment: is asking people commit to a specific behaviour to consume less energy. Example: getting people to commit to taking shorter showers in the morning.  
6. Competition: introduce a contest where participants with the best performance are rewarded. Example: Two neighbourhoods competing on who can reduce the number of parking lots the most.   
7. Collective vs. individual framing: this concerns how initiatives are presented, and how that affects people’s behaviour. Example: Will saving energy consumption from investing in solar panels affect people more if the investment is individual or if it is a community/collective investment?  

Join us on December 7th from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM CET for an enlightening webinar hosted by the EU project ENCHANT.  

We extend a warm invitation to policymakers and energy transition stakeholders from across the European Union and associate countries. ENCHANT has diligently conducted multiple experiments to unravel the most effective methods of engaging citizens and inspiring them to transform their energy consumption habits. During this webinar, we will unveil our key findings, providing valuable insights to enhance your communication strategies to reduce energy consumption among citizens. This event is of paramount relevance to anyone involved in the formidable task of instigating behavioural changes on a large scale regarding energy usage. 

Furthermore, we will introduce you to the ENCHANT Energy Wizard, a powerful tool designed to support stakeholders, including energy companies, municipalities, and NGOs, in selecting the most suitable communication strategies for distinct target groups such as customers, residents, and members.  

To gain comprehensive information about the project, its research findings, and the capabilities of the Energy Wizard, please explore the  Enchant - From A to Z.  

To secure your spot in this enlightening webinar,  kindly register by clicking here. 

 Or use this QR-code:

Enchant has produced several deliverables throughout the project periode. All of the reports are, or will be, published when they are ready.

This includes WP1,2,3,4 and 7.

We hope that you will find them as enchanting as we do.

You can find all of the projects deliverables  here. 

Energia Positiva - Policy recommendations:

Based on ”Energia Positiva” intervention and considering the results and observations reported, it is possible to formulate some policy recommendations:

• Accurately considering the characteristics of the messages conveyed: the results indicate that sending newsletters with normative messages, particularly injunctive-style messages, was related to a reduced electricity consumption. Potential factors involved in such a relationship should be further investigated. For example, in the current digital era, the daily messages people are exposed to via other media sources should also be considered. Accordingly, public policies should take into account what emerged from the research in energy efficiency awareness campaigns and consider the message’s salience, immediacy, certainty, and the individual’s perception of self-efficacy.

• Actively involve user partners: experience with the difficulty of matching pre- and post-intervention responses suggests that actively involving user partners in data collection can improve the quality and completeness of the data collected. Policies should promote specific training for user partners and involve them in the data collection phase to avoid similar challenges in future interventions.

• Supporting the use of cooperative energy and energy communities: the high replicability of the ”Energia Positiva” intervention suggests that similar initiatives could be promoted in various contexts. Public policies should encourage and support energy cooperatives and energy communities as vehicles for sustainable behavior.

• Monitor engagement of policy makers: although the intervention had minimal interactions with policy makers, it would be beneficial to establish mechanisms to monitor the interaction between research projects and policy makers. This could help ensure that research findings are considered in energy policy formulation.

• Improving stakeholder engagement: to implement similar ideas in the future, it is essential to engage relevant stakeholders and secure their support. Policies should encourage collaboration between public bodies, scientific organizations, and commercial bodies in energy efficiency project implementation. These policy recommendations are based on specific ”Energia Positiva” intervention aimed at promoting energy sustainability, citizen engagement, and intervention effectiveness. The recommendations should, however, be adapted to the specific context in which they will be used.

Romania online offline - Policy recommendations:

• The national landscape related to market culture presents a situation where there is little cooperation between decision-makers and energy companies (consumers can be added as a third party in cooperation), whereas both sides perform complementary actions on the market, which can only be successfully delivered if coordinated (datacollection, policy design and implementation). There is a high polarization between these actors that result from the political discourse and action. A better coordination between stakeholders would result in more coherent action, lower policy-making costs (parties would share information that they collect habitually, or share competences for the public interest), better policies, inherently a more stable and predictive market, and increased trust in the market from all key players (including consumers). This is particularly important in a sector that is affected by disruptive events to such extent. An example of such initiative would be the creation of tripartite committees that would engage a large spectrum of concerned states institutions, private and public companies and consumer instances in various forms of organization (e.g. NGOs, landlord associations, municipality associations, etc.). The habitual exchange of information is encouraged in such committees. Such models have proved their effectiveness both in literature (Sartori, Giovanni; The Theory of Democracy Revisited) and in practice. Romania implements a similar model in the field of climate policy, but this does not have an energy market focus. Scientific evidence, such as the one resulted from the ENCHANT interventions, can become the object of a sustained exchange committee routine leading to better designed and deployed policies that can deliver much better in both punctual (such as energy crises) and more medium and long-term scenarios (such as the just energy transition objectives).

• In relation to the above, there is generally a high resistance and absence of trust coming from the companies to share any type of data. There is an overall culture of distrust that dominates the energy sector. This decreases the potential to engage evidence in decision-making effectively, it affects intervention deployment timelines and the quality of results, to name just a few. The energy market is highly competitive with many benefits for the consumers, but also with large costs in terms of public interest. It could be useful to develop at level of the EU and the Member States broad information and engagement campaigns aimed at developing a higher trust culture at the level of energy companies. This could be done by raising awareness at the level of market actors that there is mutual benefit in sharing information and coordinating action even between market competitors. Such actions should be founded in scientific evidence, the dissemination of good practices and networking opportunities.

• The current report accounts for over-all impact of the interventions. However, a more detailed analysis of the data shows that the impact is nuanced if segmented on socio-demographic categories, place of residence (region, county, rural, large urban and small urban) and repeated intervention (some of the interventions (Intervention1) have faded after repeated deployment, whereas others have increased in effect (Intervention 3.2). Moreover, the interventions have been performed in a situation of exceptionality on the market - the energy crisis. Performing the exercise in a repeated manner would help us better account for these variations in a diversity of market contexts. The low costs associated to the deployment of the interventions is an argument in support of repeated testing.

Austria - Policy recommendations

• Energy Communities provide an effective organizational framework to address people in respect to energy related topics. It is a setting where people expect to be informed and communicated with regarding to their personal energy needs and tend to be open to messages received via communication means of their energy community. In this respect Energy Communities can be an important vehicle for effective communication in addition to its other benefits. However, establishing and operating Energy Communities is still an exhausting process that requires significant effort and interaction with different communal and regulatory entities. Further lowering the barrier of entry to participate in existing and establishing new Energy Communities should therefor be a priority. To achieve this easily accessible information and consultation services provided by regional services (such as regional energy agencies) need to be promoted. However, information needs to be not only be provided for citizens but also for the administrative agencies that are involved in establishing Energy Communities so that easy, streamlined processes can be developed and offered for easy access to Energy Communities.”

Germany - Policy recommendations

• The results showed that a simple presentation and monitoring of one’s own consumption does not lead directly to a reduction. A political recommendation would be to raise awareness of the issue of energy saving in all areas (water, heat, electricity) more precisely and comprehensively. It should be made clear that monitoring your own consumption is a simple and straightforward means of saving energy. People should also be made aware that saving hot water in many households also means saving heating oil and gas.

• Combining the direct monitoring of one’s own consumption with an app for households also offers many opportunities for political decision-makers. For example, cooperation between scientific partners and corresponding companies could be supported by politicians in order to further promote the success of energy savings.

Turkey Gediz - Policy recommendations

• Electricity Providers:

Continue and expand efforts to promote energy efficiency among consumers. Collaborate with academic institutions to conduct research and develop strategies to increase energy efficiency and reduce electricity consumption. Engage with consumers innovatively, including energy-saving tips and information on electricity bills and web platforms. Continue to use these channels effectively to reach a broad audience. Invest in data analysis and research to understand consumer behavior and preferences better. Use this information to tailor energy efficiency messages and programs to different customer segments. Offer energy audits and efficiency assessments to consumers to identify areas for improvement in energy use. Provide recommendations for energy-saving measures.

• Electricity Providers:

Continue and expand efforts to promote energy efficiency among consumers. Collaborate with academic institutions to conduct research and develop strategies to increase energy efficiency and reduce electricity consumption. Engage with consumers innovatively, including energy-saving tips and information on electricity bills and web platforms. Continue to use these channels effectively to reach a broad audience. Invest in data analysis and research to understand consumer behavior and preferences better. Use this information to tailor energy efficiency messages and programs to different customer segments. Offer energy audits and efficiency assessments to consumers to identify areas for improvement in energy use. Provide recommendations for energy-saving measures.

• Government Authorities:

Encourage electricity providers to participate in energy efficiency initiatives and interventions. Develop supportive regulations and incentives for companies investing in increasing energy efficiency and reducing electricity consumption. Encourage collaboration between government agencies and electricity providers to implement energy efficiency programs. Partner with electricity providers to create public awareness campaigns that educate consumers about the benefits of energy efficiency and ways to reduce consumption.

• Local Authorities and Municipalities:

Invest in sustainable public transport systems and promote the adoption of electric vehicles such as electric buses and e-ferries; reducing reliance on fossil fuels for transportation can reduce electricity demand. Develop and enforce building codes that require new construction to meet energy efficiency standards. Consider providing incentives for retrofitting existing buildings to meet these standards. Actively engage with local communities to raise awareness of energy efficiency. Collaborate with electricity providers and academic institutions to organize local energy saving campaigns. Promote partnerships between local governments, academia and electricity providers to conduct research, share best practices and jointly develop energy efficiency programs tailored to the local context.

• Academics

Conduct in-depth research on consumer behaviour related to energy consumption. Understand the psychological factors influencing energy-saving choices and develop strategies to encourage sustainable behaviour. Collaborate with electricity providers, public authorities and local governments to research energy consumption, the effectiveness of interventions and consumer behaviour. Use this research to inform policy recommendations. Use data analytics and advanced modelling techniques to learn about electricity consumption patterns and factors influencing energy efficiency and energy-saving behaviours. Encourage interdisciplinary collaborations involving energy experts, environmental scientists, economists and behavioural scientists to address complex energy challenges comprehensively.

Türkiye Metropolitan - Policy recommendations:

Local Authorities and Municipalities can:

• Prioritize investing in public transport infrastructure, including expanding bus, metro, ferry (if available) and tram networks, improved transit stations and integrated transport hubs. These investments can make public transport more accessible and attractive to residents.

• Encourage the integration of various modes of transportation, such as buses, trams, subways, and ferries, to create a seamless and efficient public transport network. Implement unified ticketing systems to simplify fare payments and transfers between modes like in Izmir.

• Develop and implement policies that promote sustainable transportation options such as bicycle lanes, pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, and electric or hybrid public transport. These initiatives can reduce the environmental impact of transportation and improve air quality. Implement environmentally friendly initiatives such as using electric or hybrid buses for public transport, renewable energy sources for stations, and carbon offset programs to reduce the environmental impact of public transport.

• Use data analytics and technology to inform decision-making in public transport planning. Analyzing transport data can help identify areas of high demand, optimize routes and reduce congestion. Encourage data collection on transportation use before and after public information campaigns. This data can be used to assess the impact of campaigns and inform future transportation policies.

• Launch public awareness campaigns to promote the benefits of public transport, including reduced congestion, lower transportation costs and its positive impact on the environment. These campaigns can encourage more residents to use public transportation. These campaigns can include billboards, infographics, and messages on public transport platforms. - Encourage collaboration among various stakeholders, including government agencies, municipalities, academic institutions and transport service providers. Regular information exchange and collaboration can increase the effectiveness of interventions. Recognize that public information campaigns need to be adapted to the target audience’s specific context and cultural norms. Policymakers should encourage flexibility in campaign design to ensure relevance and effectiveness.

• Involve the community in transportation planning and decision-making. Organize public hearings, surveys and community meetings to gather input and feedback on transportation needs and priorities.

Green Friday Romania - Policy recommendations:

• Data analysis results in the identification of over-all positive trends related to the Green Friday, however there is insufficient evidence in support of replication or expansion to other days. As of now the policy does not have an impact analysis framework attached. The current exercise serves as a useful guideline for setting up such a framework with some methodological improvements: a systematic traffic data collection system based on a larger sample (including all relevant traffic lines in the model); a cost analysis (absent in our analysis); a constant monitoring of relevant climate data. Our model did not include a qualitative component, which proved to be costly and time-consuming to perform in the short timeframe available and with the human resources in place. However, a qualitative perspective would be necessary to ascertain citizens satisfaction and needs (interviews with commuters) and the challenges related to the administrative burden (interviews with decision-makers) including the expectations of decision-makers from other local administrations, in view of further programme improvement. These efforts might be costly if taken individually and performed outside the administrative framework, but should decrease in costs considerably, if they are assumed by the local public administration in a systematic way and by making use of existing administrative capabilities, routines and inter-institutional networks (including the partnership with the local universities). Over ENCHANT dissemination events, a high interest for the model was manifested by other public administrations. However, in the absence of additional impact data, the model did not prove to be convincing enough. Attaching a more robust impact assessment framework would increase model replication or, on the contrary, would offer sufficient fundament for model improvement, making Cluj-Napoca an important actor in the field of climate-related policy-making.

Ninfa Gardens - Policy Recommendations:

Based on the intervention implementation at the Gardens of Ninfa, we can make some policy recommendations:

• The experience of intervention implementation in Ninfa Gardens suggests that these kinds of initiatives promoted in such contexts could have a potential that should be further explored by research. Indeed, further studies in this kind of contexts considering the importance of sustainability education and sensibilization also toward adoption of renewable energy sources are needed. Policies should keep in mind the potential of these public interest sites, such as historic and botanical gardens, and support initiatives that promote the integration of information about sustainable practices into their narratives and promotional efforts.

• Improving education for sustainable development: the implementation of the current research has shown the potential of historical and botanical gardens to function as dynamic educational hubs for sustainability. To effectively engage and educate visitors, a comprehensive strategy is imperative. This entails implementing initiatives such as thematic sustainability educational tours to spotlight local sustainable endeavors and hands-on workshops dedicated to renewable energy education. The aim is to promote a heightened appreciation for local sustainable practices among visitors through these interventions

• Involving various stakeholders: the research involved various actors, including public bodies, scientific organizations, and NGOs. To raise awareness about renewable energy, public policies should promote collaboration between these stakeholders.

• Ensuring adequate financial resources: research has highlighted the importance of having adequate financial resources to cover the costs of awareness initiatives related to renewable energy. Such initiatives should be adequately funded, including operational costs, information materials, and personnel.

• Promote replicability: research has demonstrated that the intervention could be highly replicable in similar contexts and recreational settings. A public policy should encourage the replication of such initiatives in other locations and areas of public concern.

• Involving managers of sites of public interest: the research highlighted the interest of managers of sites of public interest in improving the training of their guides on energy and climate issues. To develop appropriate training programs, public policies should encourage collaboration between managers and energy industry experts.

Based on intervention implemented at Gardens of Ninfa, these policy recommendations aim to increase public awareness and participation in renewable energy initiatives, as well as improve information campaigns in recreational settings. This recommendation, however, must be tailored to the specific context in which it will be implemented.

Small Scale Norway - Policy recommendations:

• The close collaboration with user partners has proven beneficial from the academic side in communication with citizens as it highly improves the numbers reached when activating the user partners’ networks, and an already established relationship between sender and receiver improves the uptake. From the user partner perspective, the collaboration with academic partners is valuable as the use of scientific methods ensures the effects of interventions communicated can be measured, meaning that communication can be more targeted. Information overload is an increasing problem, and reliable contents and effective communication might in turn reduce irrelevant or excessive communication. Differences in impact can be attributed to various types of user partners, and types of interventions, implying that collaboration should be encouraged across sectors and stakeholders. By actively involving user partners, and ensuring that they are trained and informed sufficiently, their competence- and capacity building will not only increase impact but also lead to permanent changes in their practices. The other side of the coin is that academic partners get branch-specific knowledge on how to approach different types of populations. The combination leads to better communication and overall improved quality. Competence building is also beneficial for consumers, as they reduce their consumption if trained in energy literacy (i.e., How to read energy invoices and implement energy efficiency measures).

• One-stop-shops can be an efficient tool to increase people’s motivation but also ability to implement more ambitious energy efficiency upgrades of their homes. However, people do not end up on these platforms if the societal discourse is not in favour of energy investments. In other words, ideally campaigns to increase the energy efficiency and platforms specifically targeting people with tailored advice need to go hand in hand.

• The platform results show clearly that electricity consumption (as an example of energy consumption) is strongly dependent on the structure and culture of electricity use. Countries with high level of per capita electricity consumption have a stronger potential for behaviour change based reductions than countries that already have lower levels of electricity use.

• Structural interventions can have a strong and lasting effect, for example reducing the need to energy for heating or cooling the house and efficient water heating are likely the most effective ways to reduce the energy consumption. Thus, programs that improve these structural aspects should have priority.

• Electricity prices also show a clear impact on people’s use behaviour. Thus, price signals seem to be able to steer people’s consumption, but the prospect of energy poverty especially in households that do not have the means to invest in energy efficient technology needs to be acknowledged.

• Providing specific energy saving tips seems also to be an efficient strategy. Not simply informing about the need to save, but also means how to achieve that without larger investments can be a way to go, probably with even smarter websites that detect the highest saving potentials based on a dialogue with the users (and maybe data about the household and the dwelling from central databases – see also the pilot with the energy counselling websites in Norway).

• Targeting a population with what is perceived as relevant interventions can lead to substantial savings. In Norway, electricity-saving campaigns with practical tips on how to reduce peoples’ energy consumption led to savings on an average of 300 kWh/month for a 4-person household. The tips should be well-designed, and with motivating information, presenting information people do not already know.

• The other interventions show a more mixed picture: Social norm interventions work in some cultures, but backfire in others. Feedback works for cultures with lower levels of energy literacy, but not if people already know a lot. Commitment and competitions work well in some cultures, but only for people that accept them, people that reject them usually use more energy, indicating, that maybe only people commit to saving or participate in competitions who already know that they have or can achieve lower consumption levels. This means that such interventions require a careful tailoring to the target groups.

For the results from the real life testing of the various interventions to be available and applicable to other stakeholders and societal actors across Europe, one of the main dissemination results of ENCHANT is the ENCHANT Energy Wizard.

The ENCHANT Energy Wizard is an adaptation of a recommender system, which is a technology based on machine learning identifying patterns within large data sets, matching desired states (in our case changes substantial in energy efficiency) with behavioural or demographic patterns in the population. In the ENCHANT Energy Wizard, the empirical results will be developed to support policymakers, municipalities, NGOs and other collective social units promoting energy efficiency in selecting the most effective campaign design for their specific context and resource situation.

For the purpose of designing the recommender system, the ENCHANT Energy Wizard transfer data gathered from the work done with designing the intervention packages, re-analysing existing data, implementing, and monitoring the pilots, as well as assessing the impact and designing policies (WPs 2-5). The system uses an algorithm that is developed and trained (in WP6) and validated by tests. Further, the ENCHANT Energy Wizard will be adjusted according to feedback and involvement from user-partners. 

Or in short: ENCHANT bridge the gap from knowledge to impact.

• Presentation of the tool by Kalyan Ram Ayyalasomayajula, Smart Innovation Norway.

• Feedback/experiences from user partners  (coming soon)
• Feedback/experiences from project coordinator (coming soon)

Two of the most interesting pilots are the ones conducted in Romania and in Türkiye. In both countries they included energy saving tips in the monthly electricity bill. We can now see that the intervention reduced the energy consumption by 2% in the north and 1.3% in the south.

This is also statistically significant. Here are some additional facts:

• Gediz intervention conducted in Izmir from November 2021 to February 2022.
  • Intervention in northern regions: November 2021 to February 2022 (4 months).
  • Intervention in southern regions: December 2021 to February 2022 (3 months).
• Experimental groups:
  • North: n = 136,785customers received messages.
  • South: n = 320,598 customers received messages.
• Control group:
  • n = 1,104,261 no messages.

• Objective: Investigate the impacts of billboards and posters promoting the usage of public transport  on public transport usage
• Timeline: December 2021 to March 2022
• Data Collection: Hourly number of public transport usages - aggregated to daily number of passengers
• Participant Groups: 
  • Experimental Group (~428 Mio. passengers): Received billboards and posters 
  • Control Group (~38. Mio passengers) : No poster 
  • During Treatment periods in Experimental Group (~34.7Mio)
  • During Treatment periods in Control Group (~3.5 Mio.)

In Ninfa Garden, Italy they asked: How much would you donate to support...?

People where first asked what project they would support renovation of Fresco or RES installation. In both groups more people opted for the sustainable project 114 from 188 in the control group and 199 from 286 in the experimental group. Overall 34% selected the Fresco and 66% the sustainable project. 

Afterwards they could select between 1,3, or 5 Euro donations. We can see that most people would donate money to a sustainable project (in both groups Experiment and Control) and most people would donate the smallest amount (1 Euro). 

We see that a higher % of people from the EXP group would invest 1 euro (40%) in the Sustainable project vs. 32% from the Control group. This is also the case e for the second highest donation (3Euro) 24% vs 22% but no difference in the highest donation category. 

An article by Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy - Europe

Saving energy through behavioural change: the experience of Viken county in Norway 

The Norwegian county of Viken worked closely with municipalities to engage citizens in energy saving through a campaign aimed at inciting widespread changes in energy consumption habits. 

To save energy beyond municipality infrastructure, it is crucial to engage the general population and encourage changes in their energy consumption habits. However, changing behaviour on a large scale is no easy feat. To have broader reach and impact, regional authorities and local authorities can team up to collaborate on campaigns geared toward raising awareness and inciting behavioural change. This is exactly what Viken County in Norway did when they launched a campaign as part of the ENCHANT project. They worked closely with Viken’s municipalities to encourage citizens to save energy, testing different tools to change their consumption habits.  

Engaging citizens via campaigns  

The ENCHANT campaign in Viken had the objective of involving every resident in the area who relies on electricity, primarily households. It was a comprehensive effort that sought to tackle the energy consumption challenge on multiple fronts. The campaign called on residents directly to participate and test different energy saving tools and tactics, to then share results publicly on different channels. To be more engaging, the campaign was framed as a sort of competition, with the possibility of winning prizes for more citizens to play the game.  

In order to directly reach and engage citizens, Viken County, as coordinator of the ENCHANT campaign in a large part of Norway[CK1] , worked with all its 51 municipalities, who carried out the campaign with their communities locally via their channels. Viken was in charge of developing the campaign materials and coordinating with the municipalities. But at the end of the day, the municipalities appropriated the campaign as their own. This was crucial to the campaign’s success: residents, feeling closer to their local government and trusting of the information shared with them, felt more compelled to get involved. 

"Households lack knowledge on the best actions to save energy. Access to information is mainly available from suppliers and artisans with mixed interest and competence.  Energy measures are often big investments and detailed and reliable information are important barriers. The municipality is a trustworthy source for independent information and advice. In Norway the electrification of society has already come a long way, especially in the transport sector. Therefor, Asker municipality has a goal of not increasing net energy consumption in households from 2019 to 2030. The advisory service plays an important role in reaching that goal.” - Bente Støa, Climate advisor, Asker municipality. 

The campaign ran for 4 months, from January to April 2023, and counted with an active participation of 889 inhabitants throughout Viken region. In a context of energy crisis, the campaign had increased relevance, as people were already aware of the importance of saving energy and motivated to try new ways to decrease their consumption. 

Encouraging Behavioural Change 

The campaign divided participants into different groups to try out six different intervention tools either on their own or combined.  

The primary objective of the ENCHANT project is to assess the effectiveness of intervention tools that have demonstrated success in smaller-scale trials and adapt them for practical application on a larger-scale, in collaboration with user partners like municipalities, county administrations, electricity companies, and NGOs, spanning across six European countries. 

The different tools that were systematically tried are:

(a)   offering energy-saving advice,

(b)   providing feedback on others' successful experiences,

(c)    offering feedback on one's own electricity consumption trends over weeks, 

(d)   seeking commitments to undertake energy-saving efforts, 

(e)   initiating competitive elements among participants, 

(f)    encouraging a shift from an individual perspective to a collective one (e.g., emphasizing "we in Norway" can conserve electricity instead of "I can save electricity"). In the six countries part of the project, these tools were tested either individually or in combination with one another. 

In Viken, the campaign showed that the tool most effective in changing behaviours were the energy-saving tips. Participants who received energy-saving tips managed to save an average of 18.8 kWh per week per household member, compared to control groups. For a family of four, this equates to around 300 kWh saved per month (in winter months). Another tool that proved to have impact in Norway was the social element: as participants were made aware of the energy savings achieved by their peers, their motivation to conserve increased, leading to additional savings of 11.3 kWh per person per week.

Integrating behavioural change in energy and climate action 

Such a campaign has much to contribute to Viken County's energy and climate objectives, as the county’s Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) outlines a clear commitment to reducing energy consumption.  

To cast a wider net with consumption reduction and inspire the population to make meaningful changes, it is critical to first and foremost understand the energy consumption patterns of Viken's residents. The campaign period became an opportunity for registered participants to gain invaluable insights into their own electricity usage and how they could reduce it. Through active participation, residents not only received practical tips but also real-time feedback, empowering them to make informed choices that not only benefitted individual citizens but also contributed positively to our climate goals. 

“We wanted to learn as much as possible about the residents of Viken's energy consumption. Without this knowledge, we would not be able to motivate the population to make important changes. Changes that is positive both for the individual citizen, but also for the climate.” - Viken County Councilor for Planning, Climate, and Environment, Annette Lindahl Raakil (Sp) 

Seeing these benefits, the municipality of Asker decided to finance the campaign with their municipality’s own budget as part of their broader climate and energy strategy. From these efforts, they found that in-home visits by energy advisors had the most significant impact. This approach was particularly effective because many households lack knowledge about the energy efficiency of their homes, and physical inspections often unveiled more energy-saving opportunities than general information or consultations could provide.  

“The energy advisory service ties well with Askers long term climate ambitions. Asker has adopted a climate plan that contains six priority areas, one of which being “Future-oriented buildings and constructions.” This focus area includes a strategy about reducing energy consumption in our own buildings as well as being a driving force for energy reductions in private buildings. The advisory service ties directly to this strategy. By promoting energy efficiency, the service ties directly to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and advancing the municipality´s climate goals. It also fosters a culture of sustainability and empowers citizens to take an active part in combating climate change.” - Bente Støa, Climate advisor, Asker municipality. 

Babeș-Bolyai University is a partner in ENCHANT, and in the Exploitation, Communation and Dissemination Work Package (WP7) we prepared an initiative where we got students from the university to demonstrate their skills and creativity in presenting interesting and relevant cases from the various countries in the project.

In short, students from four different courses (journalism, public administration, political science, and PR) at the university collaborated on presenting the input the project partners provided (culture, language, social media, communication channels, laws, regulations, policy influence, cross-country similarities, and differences etc.). 

Here are some examples:

If you want to take a closer look on the work done by the students at Babeș-Bolyai University, you can read their full reports here.

•  Case 1 - Smart cities / CLUJ-NAPOCA 
•  Case 2 - Greener Future - Austria 
•  Case 3 - Electrica Furnizare SA 
•  Case 4 - Zero-emission buildings - Viken, Norway 
•  Case 5 - A Communication strategy - The campaign to solve the energy crisis in Germany 

What is needed, and what is relevant for energy companies, municipalities, and NGOs. What are local, national, international challenges and solutions.