Workshop follow up

[Sally Blackwell]

Hi guys

Just a quick update to let you know the workshop on Thursday in Wellington went really well. There were around 15 of us there representing Beacon, CEN, The Enviroschools Foundation, EDAs, Otago Uni, BRANZ, EECA, CEA and Sustainability Trust.

We had a great facilitator who led us through a process of looking at what we originally set out to do, thinking about what was and was not working, and what we wanted to do next. There was lots of engagement and lively discussion and some real energy to move this thing forward.

In general, we all agreed that while this site has a lot of value and should continue to be developed, the Hub is about a much wider set of shared objectives and collaborative work than an online forum. We want to foster the connections between the collaborating organizations more and leverage benefits for each other by developing some agreed “outputs” together.

I will go back over the notes and summarize the key discussion points and agreed actions during this week so that I can circulate them to you all ASAP.

More soon

Sally

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[Scott Willis]

Thanks Sally,

A pity we couldn’t be there but simply an issue of our staff numbers and our workload (oh, and the informal limit on carbon intensive travel we have). I’m looking forward to your summary of discussion points and key actions.

At a social event I was at last night I had a long discussion with a friend who’s an IT specialist and who’s passion is trying to understand how humans effectively use IT, with all the bits of how to shape online resources to make things work even better. He was very interested in what I could tell him about this online hub (he was also talking about Reddit and Facebook and Google – and how they work, what hooks they have, etc.). He asked “are you anonymous or do you know each other” and when I told him that the forum has our identities clearly upfront, he was excited. Because effectively, at present participants form a small group – but there’s some very good information (I know that much of this was invested in the early days by a smaller group) and some very good discussion (which has grown as access has grown and as topics have grown). What we haven’t got to yet is working on collective actions (‘outputs’). However the forum is helping develop shared objectives and at least, greater knowledge of each other, who’s there, whats going on… and offers the potential of greater collaboration.

Today, 3 cents gets added onto the price of fuel. Will people drive less? Research suggests not, they will likely cut back on other things like heating costs, food, or limit disposable expenditure more. The Fuel Poverty campaign is something we’ve been talking out in our neck of the woods – the quality of Dunedin’s housing is very poor and it is cold and often damp, people are either ‘hardy’ or simply perversely proud/resigned to living in fuel poverty. There are a few more months to boost this campaign – selfishly we want the campaign to be strong so we can be more effective in our efforts to bring together stakeholders in Dunedin to work on a collective vision to establish warm cosy homes in Dunedin.

So, as I was not able to attend the workshop in person, I’m very keen to hear what others thought collaborative agreed outputs might look like. I’m very interested to hear more about the Fuel Poverty Campaign and how its working in different centres/regions – and thanks to Jo for all your great work on this!

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[Norman Smith]

I’m sorry I missed the workshop; thanks Sally for your feedback and Scott for comments. I prepared the following to talk to at the gathering; belatedly it may assist “going forward”

We are working on initiatives which have the objective of increasing the uptake of best energy and sustainability solutions for NZ households. The Hub can be a very important source of information in the challenging task of helping transform homes and improve lives. In that I see it joined at the hip with the other current  CEN-lead proposal — training and accreditation of Home Performance Advisers.

Together they are a most important initiative. This is not because they are the major source of advice available but rather for the opposite reason – they will only ever make up at most about one percent of the total information provided about home energy use and resource efficiency.

Yes, one percent, but note I said ‘information provided about’ not independent information about….
Information about home energy use is principally provided by the marketing and communications arms of the building products industry and its sub-set the energy products providers. Combined these have a budget of many tens of millions of dollars. Compared to these resources we are but small barnacles on the keel of the SS Free Enterprise.

I see the role of the Hub as an effective means of enabling a small number of independent advisers to work together; to keep up to speed with new products and services as they are launched onto the market. It can be the counterpoint to the highly selected information beamed into NZ homes; ours is the role of providing perspective and context in the face of hype, selective half truths and sometimes downright lies.

Here’s an example – As a homeowner I am considering a more efficient hot water system. I need a household and house-specific solution which is both supplier independent and technology agnostic. By the latter I mean, for example, advice without bias any one over the others –  solar panel compared with heat pump compared with photovoltaics. Who is going to guide me through this labyrinth and who is going to help home energy advisers fill that role if not each other?

The collaborative approach  we have been trialling over the last few months may not always result in consensus but at least individual advisors will have access a substantial body of perspectives and experiences from people who they trust rather than operating in isolation

Even with the involvement of fellow travellers such as Beacon, BRANZ, Eco-Design Advisers, EECA, Consumer and others, it’s always going to be an unequal engagement but The Hub can help to off-set that.

While I haven’t done a breakdown it is my observation that only a modest number of enquiries and feedback/comments have come from CEN members.  I find this unsurprising, in these challenging times the priority of CEN members and the main call on their time is to keep their retrofit businesses in business – and we know it’s not going to get any easier in the next 12 months.

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[Paul Hansen]

On the last point of Ian’s first. This is true of comment about CEN people. We are having to focus on still being here. I think a very positive thing is that we tend to fill the space that the new WuNZ:Healthy Homes program is taking. So we should be around for the medium term at least.

I think Norman is also correct in stating a lot of perception around residential efficiency will be driven by the big machines of the free market (not much is free in this market is the irony), these will be the same market forces that led us to the leaky homes type of building products and design. So community faith in their opinion has been tested.

So the independence of opinion in the hub becomes its unique selling point. There is also a good mix of opinion between science and practical implementation in the house. The more input we get from operational people from within our wider network the better. Being isolated geographically in the Far North I find the hub a good calling point to test and gain opinion on concepts/products.

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[Heidi Mardon]

Yes, independent, unbiased and household focused seem to be some key values that are not negotiable for our group, and are our point of difference from other services out there.

I enjoyed the discussion we had at the workshop about criteria for membership – how to ascertain that members have the core values that the Hub aims for.  Many of our organisations are related to product in some way, we asked the questions ‘does that create bias?’, ‘how do we manage that?’  I think it’s an ongoing discussion as many organisations are trying to move from being ‘charities’ to being social enterprises.   All good timely stuff!  I’m excited by the possibilities of this group  : )

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[Sally Blackwell]

Thanks for your comments all

Scott, I’d be keen to know a bit more about the IT guy you were speaking to. Do you think there would be value in me having a chat to him at some point?

I’ve just put the notes from the workshop up in the Best Practice Library so I hope we can carry the conversation forward from here.

Its going to take some more face to face dialogue. So I will be in contact about 1) where we prioritize our energy and (limited resources) and 2) how we facilitate the next steps – online and out there in the real world.

Its good to be working with you all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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