Paper on the collision of real life and green technology wins award

A Business School paper on the use of embedded green technology has been recognised by the British Sociological Association.

A recent study by researchers at Imperial College London of how green technology embedded in new homes is being used has come second in the British Sociological Association’s Climate Change Group’s Annual Article Prize. Led by Dr Ritsuko Ozaki and Dr Isabel Shaw from the Business School, the work focussed on how green technologies impact on, and are used by, people in their everyday lives.

“We are delighted to have been recognised,” explains Dr Ozaki “we just think it is important that we know what happens when green technology enters our everyday lives and asks us to reorganise or change how we live our lives.”

Since 2006 the Code for Sustainable Homes has provided a framework, and regulations, to help to make all newly built homes zero carbon by 2016. This has led to many new building schemes to include features, like solar thermal systems, to improve their energy efficiency or reduce energy use.

The team tried to look at both these areas by interviewing the housing association and residents of a new build housing scheme in south-east London. Over two years the team conducted in-depth interviews to understand the attitudes and practices of all the people involved. “We were able to build up a real rapport with people,” says Dr Ozaki “and we got some great, candid, opinions from all sides.”

What the research clearly demonstrates is that domestic energy management and consumption is shaped by people’s everyday routines and not by technology best practise. It was also clear that attempts to explain and promote the ‘correct’ way of using technology does not always work and has serious limitations.

“What we need is to understand how technology and our daily routines evolve together,” says Dr Ozaki “if we continue on this path of ‘build it and they will come’ we may end up some really inefficient energy efficient homes.”

The paper Entangled Practices: Governance, Sustainable Technologies, and Energy Consumption (DOI: 10.1177/0038038513500101) was published in the journal Sociology. It was the runner up in the British Sociological Association’s Climate Change Group’s Annual Article Prize.