Green guidance

Sustainability is the topic on everyone’s lips. The contribution of housing to carbon emissions is significant, rising bills are pushing thousands of people into fuel poverty, and it’s clear that the dual problems of carbon emissions and the ever increasing cost of running a modern home aren’t going away any time soon.

While zero-carbon targets for new homes are vitally important, they form only a small part of the solution. More than 85 per cent of the homes standing today will still be lived in by 2050, so it’s important that we maintain a focus on changing the behaviour of individuals and retrofitting older stock. This is something that forms the core of our sustainability strategy at Places for People.

It was with this in mind that we decided to develop a new way to reach out to our customers. We wanted to find a way to capture peoples’ attention and educate them about the ways they can save energy, explaining why it’s important and the benefits it will bring, without talking down to them or making them feel guilty.

What we worked with the Mill Group to produce is a series of short films focusing on the easy changes people can make in each room of the house (see the kitchen example below), each less than a minute long and designed so that they would make sense when viewed independently while also forming a coherent story.

They explain both the physical changes people can make, such as insulating walls and lofts and using energy saving light bulbs, as well as simple behavioural changes like turning the heating down a few degrees. The simplicity of the message, filmed room-by-room around a typical house and lasting less than a minute in each room, draws inspiration from the close-up filming techniques used on Peep Show

The critical factor is that we wanted the films to inspire direct action. By focusing on small steps we’ve avoided alienating people who may otherwise be overwhelmed by the scale of the changes required.

It’s easy to tell people the benefits of saving energy, but you also need to give them the opportunity to do it. By clicking on the various rooms around the house on our website, viewers learn the benefits gained from insulating walls or lofts or from using energy-saving light bulbs and devices and a second click in any area allows customers to place orders for home insulation, energy monitors, power-downs, water-saving devices and all sorts of other free equipment that will help them save hundreds of pounds a year.

The films have been widely welcomed and a number of housing associations are looking to use them; the films are now available to all housing providers in both online and DVD formats.

Nicholas Doyle is director of sustainability at Places for People. The rest of the clips can be seen on the Places for People website.

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