Let’s Change the Way We Talk About Energy

By Aaron Hay, Senior Sustainability Advisor at Forum for the Future

Although Big Energy Saving Week is in full swing, you could be forgiven for missing the positive energy that this worthwhile and ambitious undertaking should represent. Over at The Guardian, a recent article highlighted that household spending on gas and electricity is up 137 percent since 2003-04 even though people are using 17 percent less energy. Elsewhere, The Independent weighed in just this Monday, with more discouraging news:  a growing energy divide faced by lower-income households across the European Union.

Recent research we at Forum for the Future conducted with Behaviour Change and YouGov across the UK in October 2014 revealed a bleak state: 66 percent of people say there is nothing at all, or not very much they can do to reduce household energy bills, and at least two in five say their energy bills frustrate them. A clear lack of awareness on where people should go for help was uncovered.

It doesn’t have to be this way, households should be able to take control of their energy bills. Individuals and families can take steps to enjoy comfortable, healthy homes without the anxiety of ever-rising costs. That message isn’t cutting through the complex, negative and (no pun intended) heated rhetoric surrounding energy costs in the UK – which households hear almost daily.

The Big Energy Vision, which launches this week, is our unique endeavour to change the message. Forum for the Future and Behaviour Change have teamed up in a major partnership with sixteen household names and civil society groups, as diverse as B&Q, John Lewis, Argos, uSwitch, The National Trust and Citizens Advice Bureau, to communicate solutions in a way that makes it easy for people to use less, waste less and pay less for energy.

Behind the approach is a shared, positive language which our partners will deliver through their unique and far-reaching communication channels. At the heart of our strategy is encouragement for households to take action, united by the idea of ‘energy control’ over the things they can easily do. In short, our partners will present a clear, simple narrative in place of current complexity and confusion. This won’t just touch consumers – it’s also about reaching supporters, partner staff and volunteers with a powerful set of messages for talking about energy bills and solutions.

Over the coming months, you’ll see our shared, positive messaging deployed through our partners’ considerable public reach. But this isn’t a one-shot campaign; there is a host of activity planned for 2015 and beyond –our partners have provided long term support, knowing that the household energy conversation won’t just change overnight. It’ll take time for our message to resonate, but in five years’ time, we don’t want to look back and see more of the same: ever higher costs and further-discouraged households.

The Big Energy Vision is about something altogether different.