Presentation for the Working together: Urban communities as Sustainable Places, 26th March 2012, Cardiff, by Professor Karen Henwood.

1. Researching sustainable energy: community
led initiatives and energy biographies
Prof. Karen Henwood*
Henwoodk@cardiff.ac.uk
Dr Karen Parkhill^ Dr Catherine Butler^ Dr Fiona Shirani* Professor Nick
Pidgeon^
*School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
^School of Psychology, Cardiff University
www.energybiographies.org

2. Research Objectives
1. Develop understanding of energy use by investigating and
comparing people's different „energy biographies‟ across a
range of social settings
2. Examine how existing demand reduction interventions
interact with people's personal biographies and histories.
3. Develop improved understanding of how different
community types can support reductions in energy
consumption
…We will also be exploring the usefulness of innovative
(narrative, longitudinal and visual) research methods for
helping people reflect on the ways they use energy

3. • Build own • More deprived • More • One of the
Peterston-Super-Ely
Tir-Y-Gafel
Ely & Caerau
eco-homes urban affluent largest
London
• 75% basic community suburb of employers in
Cardiff SW London
needs from • Population:
• 700,00
their land 28000 • Goal of patients a
• Some desire • Community improving year
to upscale to voluntary org local • Subject to
help urban • Promoting environment CRC –EES
sustainability sustainable & make life • Carbon
living & in the village management
addressing more &
fuel poverty sustainable implementati
• Solar PV on plan
• Solar PV • Promote
(community) (private)
“Green
• Social • Energy culture”
Enterprise Efficiency
• Energy
Efficiency

4. Phases of research
Phase 2b:
Phase 2a: Extended
Phase 1: Context
Narrative Biographies &
(Interviews
Interviews Multimodal
July 2011- Method
December 2011-
December 2011)
May 2012 May 2012-
February 2013

5. Biographical narrative interviews
Daily Routine
Time (past,
presents & Community
futures)
Transitions

6. How do you actually create an organisation that is
sustainable?(“Steve”, Ely)
Action in Caerau and Ely, ACE, is all about making sustainable the
community work which has been done in Ely the last few years. So it's about
[wanting to] create a credible local organisation that was owned and run by
local people that had the capacity and the sort of policies and procedures in
place to employ staff, manage buildings, possibly take on buildings from the
Council through asset transfers; generate income through sort of Business &
Social Enterprise …one of the big things we're hoping to do is that ACE will
employ Communities First staff and take over the programmes that will
bring in some income through management fees but it also starts to locate
the staff locally, giving local control over it and that sort of stuff. So there's a
sort of philosophical reason for that, about empowerment and stuff (Steve,
Ely).

7. But I really liked the idea of this community feedback, so once they're [solar
PV panels] on, they're on and they're generating money for the community
all the time.
(Kelly, Ely)
So things like [supporting different community groups] that I would
see it doing that and things like the Allotment Project that they've
started doing more with that so people can grow their own veg, just
things that bring communities together really (Kelly, Ely)

8. Connecting Communities: Research
as an underused asset
• Intellectual and creative resources
• Social networks (across different sectors of society including
socio-economic & urban-rural divisions)
• Time
• Shared learning through engagement around
sustainability
• Knowledge exchange to
- create awareness of perspectives & diversity
- inform future directions of research
- promote community uplift & sustainable place making

9. www.energybiographies.org
• About EBs
• Outputs
• Making links (case sites & other research)
• Sharing knowledges & experience: write your own
energy biography