“Winter is Coming” Ministry provides funding for SAVE Program (Supporting Affordable adVice in Energy)
We are delivering community partnership, energy efficiency advice, and behaviour change good practice for those in energy hardship in Taranaki this winter.
Shockingly 1 in 4 kiwis struggle to pay power bills or heat homes. Because 25 percent of our New Zealand population is considered “energy poor,” this means whanau’s health and opportunities are at stake making it even tougher to break out from poverty. By sharing simple insights that can be acted on with little or no cost in an accessible way, we can help break this cycle.
Thanks to funding from MBIE and the Toi Foundation, Sustainable Taranaki is excited to now be designing a new energy advice program specifically to help people struggling with their bills and unable to invest in improving their homes.
It's First Aid for energy affordability.
If you are working with people in hardship or experiencing the adverse effects of an unhealthy home, please contact Jamie.Silk@sustainabletaranaki.org.nz and help us co-design this program for winter.
The SAVE Program (Supporting Affordable adVice in Energy)
This program is unique in how it tackles two key reasons people in energy hardship prove difficult to help:
They are hard to reach, often working long hours and having demanding lives
They have little money to spare on house improvements (or they live in rentals), and the most immediate choices they have is to change habits. Making and sustaining changes is very hard when you are working long hours and/or have a demanding family life.
The program overcomes these challenges by working with local charities, social housing, healthcare providers, kura (schools), and organizations that are already connected with the community.
These community partnerships paired with the behavioural change model, developed and piloted with support from the Toi Foundation, provides the means to strategically deliver targeted energy efficiency advice.
“We have learned we are all different in our needs, motivations and priorities. To really help people do new things is to engage with what is personally important to them, and provide follow up support specific to the goals they set.” - Jamie Silk
From June to September Sustainable Taranaki and its partners will be delivering the pilot energy efficiency and behaviour change support program to a minimum of 200 households through home visits, phone/ video calls, and events. The program includes limited funding for LEDs, timers, low-cost draught exclusion, and curtain bank (donations) support.
The Big Picture
The SAVE program will also help the low carbon energy transition as people reduce energy use and become more equipped to shift to a high renewables future. We can drive equitable outcomes, tackling the “energy trilemma",” and accelerate the transition.
Through this process, we will gain insights on
The trusted partners that can channel people in hardship to energy efficiency advice (our team or partners) and what mechanism(s) will make this possible;
Who may be able to deliver the advice and behaviour change process directly (as they are already working with those in need);
Insights on how best to engage with the energy hardship audience and so design the program.
Results will be shared with stakeholders (including MBIE) so that the pilot can inform expanded future interventions and programs.
If you are working with people in hardship or experiencing the adverse effects of an unhealthy home, please contact Jamie.Silk@sustainabletaranaki.org.nz and help us co-design this program for winter.
0 Likes
