• Energy Research

Energy efficiency requirements in Europe are set by the Energy Efficiency Directive, considering energy audits as a systematic procedure to determine the savings in energy costs. These kinds of tools provide useful information for companies to identify opportunities for the improvement of their energy performance. However, the regulation is only applied for non-SMEs in Europe, which make up only 0.2% of the total number of European companies. Compared in terms of the value added or the number of employees, these companies are still at a lower percentage than small and medium enterprises. The wide versatility of small companies, however, makes it difficult to determine a regulation that promotes the objective of the Directive in a uniform way. For this reason, one aspect that is being worked on with small companies is raising awareness and training in energy aspects, encouraging them to carry out activities to improve their energy performance based on their own initiative. In this regard, within the framework of an H2020 research project based on the automotive sector, the E2DRIVER project, a collaborative–cooperative training methodology has been designed to motivate and empower the key actors within a company. This paper describes the methodology and its implementation in different companies in European countries, providing some representative results.

This dataset and codebook correspond to the second round of survey data gathered in Denmark in 2023, within the project FULFILL - Fundamental Decarbonisation Through Sufficiency By Lifestyle Changes. As part of Work Package 3 (WP3) in the FULFILL project, we collected quantitative data from six countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, and India. The first round of the survey, consisted of recruiting a representative sample of approximately 2000 households in each country. In this second survey round, we recruit around 500 respondents from the initial survey round, ensuring representativity is maintained. This survey is very similar to the survey in the first round and includes a lot of identical items, including a quantitative assessment of the carbon footprint in the housing, mobility, and diet sectors, socio-economic factors such as age, gender, income, education, household size, life stage, and political orientation. Furthermore, the survey includes measures of quality of life, encompassing aspects such as health and well-being, environmental quality, financial security, and comfort. New for this second round, we have incorporated questions regarding the measures respondents adopted in response to the 2022 energy crisis.

Sufficiency is a sustainability strategy aiming for (1) a decrease in absolute resource consumption on individual and societal levels and (2) for socio-ecological justice and the fair distribution of costs and benefits of resource use to meet every human’s basic needs. This study examined a longitudinal intervention to foster individual sufficiency orientation (i.e., a multidimensional construct including both attitudes towards sufficiency sustainability strategy and corresponding behavioral intentions). We recruited N=252 participants who participated in a one-week reflective diary-intervention to increase sufficiency orientation in every-day life and assessed sufficiency orientation, basic psychological need satisfaction, self-reflection, subjective well-being, and time affluence before (T1), directly after (T2), and four weeks after the intervention (T3). Contrary to our predictions, there was no significant difference between the experimental and the control group. Sufficiency orientation increased across groups. Basic psychological need satisfaction was the strongest predictor of sufficiency orientation. There were positive relations with subjective well-being. Targeting basic psychological need satisfaction as a potential underlying driver of sufficiency orientation seems to be a promising avenue for designing interventions. Employing a need-based, humanistic approach to design psychological interventions is in line with the aims of sufficiency to meet every human’s basic needs, in a socio-ecologically just world.

Smart charging of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) can contribute to flexibility in power grids and help integrate renewable electricity. Tapping into this potential requires high user acceptance for smart charging and corresponding tariffs. In this paper, we analyze the preferences of current BEV users, representing the potential near-term adopters of smart charging, for different smart charging tariff design elements by conducting a discrete choice experiment with 689 participants in Germany. In doing so, we (1) provide an overview of current BEV users' preferences, (2) identify and characterize BEV user groups with substantial differences in their preferences, and (3) identify barriers for smart charging implementation from the perspective of current BEV users. More specifically, we find that potential cost savings along with the pricing scheme and charging mode are the most important tariff elements, whereof a pre-defined price corridor with an emergency price for grid bottlenecks and charging a safety buffer before applying smart charging are most preferred. We identify three user groups, with a large share of innovative adopters. Moreover, driving range or reluctance regarding data sharing can represent barriers for smart charging adoption. Based on our findings, we derive implications for decision-makers in policy and industry.

This dataset and codebook correspond to the second round of survey data gathered in Germany in 2023, within the project FULFILL - Fundamental Decarbonisation Through Sufficiency By Lifestyle Changes. As part of Work Package 3 (WP3) in the FULFILL project, we collected quantitative data from six countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, and India. The first round of the survey, consisted of recruiting a representative sample of approximately 2000 households in each country. In this second survey round, we recruit around 500 respondents from the initial survey round, ensuring representativity is maintained. This survey is very similar to the survey in the first round and includes a lot of identical items, including a quantitative assessment of the carbon footprint in the housing, mobility, and diet sectors, socio-economic factors such as age, gender, income, education, household size, life stage, and political orientation. Furthermore, the survey includes measures of quality of life, encompassing aspects such as health and well-being, environmental quality, financial security, and comfort. New for this second round, we have incorporated questions regarding the measures respondents adopted in response to the 2022 energy crisis.

Representative studies report high levels of acceptance of environmental protection and approval for stricter political measures to ensure a liveable future. However, in the last years, climate-damaging emissions did not decrease in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and important societal actors failed to implement effective strategies that could promote a socio-ecological transformation. Sufficiency with its underlying ‘mind-set’ can be a seen as leverage point for transformation and thus is targeted within our qualitative study. To explore barriers that prevent the implementation of knowledge about the sufficiency approach and ways to encourage sufficiency orientation on a societal level, we conducted interviews with experts from science, politics and economy (N = 21). Using qualitative content analysis, we identified keys for change, i.e., narratives, rewards and recognition, time structures and responsibilities that could have a leveraging effect towards system transformation. We propose an exploratory framework that points out main barriers, keys in terms of levers and experts’ visions towards a sufficiency-oriented society. Furthermore, we outline that the sufficiency discourse contains ambiguities and varieties concerning the experts’ perceptions regarding effective levers for a transformation. Through brief discourse pattern analysis, we highlight different perceptions regarding the role of technology, social responsibility and the societal change and time. The proposed framework can inspire future research and policy-making on sufficiency.

This dataset and codebook correspond to the second round of survey data gathered in Latvia in 2023, within the project FULFILL - Fundamental Decarbonisation Through Sufficiency By Lifestyle Changes. As part of Work Package 3 (WP3) in the FULFILL project, we collected quantitative data from six countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, and India. The first round of the survey, consisted of recruiting a representative sample of approximately 2000 households in each country. In this second survey round, we recruit around 500 respondents from the initial survey round, ensuring representativity is maintained. This survey is very similar to the survey in the first round and includes a lot of identical items, including a quantitative assessment of the carbon footprint in the housing, mobility, and diet sectors, socio-economic factors such as age, gender, income, education, household size, life stage, and political orientation. Furthermore, the survey includes measures of quality of life, encompassing aspects such as health and well-being, environmental quality, financial security, and comfort. New for this second round, we have incorporated questions regarding the measures respondents adopted in response to the 2022 energy crisis.

This dataset and codebook correspond to the second round of survey data gathered in France in 2023, within the project FULFILL - Fundamental Decarbonisation Through Sufficiency By Lifestyle Changes. As part of Work Package 3 (WP3) in the FULFILL project, we collected quantitative data from six countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, and India. The first round of the survey, consisted of recruiting a representative sample of approximately 2000 households in each country. In this second survey round, we recruit around 500 respondents from the initial survey round, ensuring representativity is maintained. This survey is very similar to the survey in the first round and includes a lot of identical items, including a quantitative assessment of the carbon footprint in the housing, mobility, and diet sectors, socio-economic factors such as age, gender, income, education, household size, life stage, and political orientation. Furthermore, the survey includes measures of quality of life, encompassing aspects such as health and well-being, environmental quality, financial security, and comfort. New for this second round, we have incorporated questions regarding the measures respondents adopted in response to the 2022 energy crisis.