What is the concept?
Green House CPH is a government program that provides rebates on energy bills to residents of apartment buildings. Rebates are only provided to residents who can work together to lower the energy consumption of their building as a whole.
How does it work?
Smart meters, social websites, mobile phone apps and neighbourly support are a few of the mechanisms communicated in this concept.
Why is it valuable for the people who use it?
Besides making energy consumption more efficient and saving money, it encourages neighbours to work together and support each other. It also provides new ways to visualise energy usage throughout the city.
What were your key learnings?
Based on initial research we decided to address the question ‘what incentives are there for an apartment building as a whole to be energy efficient?’. We found it difficult to answer our question by designing new devices or services. What we needed was systemic change or a large incentive that only the government could provide. With that, we asked ‘what would happen if the government rewarded the residents of an apartment building when their entire building met certain energy efficiency standards?’.
We came up with the concept for Green House CPH and sketched out scenarios and touch points that took advantage of emerging smart grid technology, current social web applications, mobile phones, and more. In the end we thought the best way to communicate this concept was to tell the story of a Green House CPH user. What resulted was a sort of documentary/user study that takes place one year after the city of Copenhagen launches the Green House CPH program.
