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Improving customer orientation in energy counselling – Sitra’s working group proposes a coordinating actor

Sitra’s Energy Programme organised a series of workshops in which the actors already providing or working in the field of energy counselling jointly designed a new overall system of energy counselling in Finland. Today, Minister of Labour Tarja Cronberg accepted the working group’s report and promised to take immediate action in order to introduce the model into practice.

Published

The Finnish Minister of Labour Tarja Cronberg, who is responsible for consumer affairs, promised to ensure that the work initiated by the working group will be put into practice within a rapid time frame

Energy counselling in Finland has been a fragmented activity to date. Those in need of advice have been forced to search for the necessary information in different places, and there has been no guarantee of finding the right information or of the quality of the information. Sitra’s Energy Programme organised a series of workshops in which the actors who are already providing or working in the field of energy counselling jointly designed a new overall system of energy counselling in Finland. Today, Minister of Labour Tarja Cronberg accepted the working group’s report and promised to take immediate action in order to introduce the model into practice.

Reliable and easily accessible information would be a public interest. However, in the current system, there is in fact no actor who is in charge of energy counselling in Finland. Advice is provided in bits here and there, and no-one can be sure of the correctness of the information.

– The public is already aware of the dangers of climate change, and many are prepared to do something in order to improve the situation. However, there is not enough clear advice available on what can be done. A good energy counselling system might be a solution to this problem as well, says Vesa-Matti Lahti, Business Director at Sitra.

Sitra’s Energy Programme aims to encourage the development of an energy counselling system in Finland that is coordinated between several actors. The report published today is the outcome of a series of workshops that began in January. It presents a model that would act as the basis for effective energy counselling.

The working group named energy counselling for buildings as an example.

– Building regulations as such do not lead to the construction of optimally energy efficient buildings; they merely ensure the minimum level. With advanced guidance relating to the building supervision permit, binding permit conditions and supervision during the building stage, we can get people to build energy efficient buildings, says Pekka Seppälä, Head of Quality at the Building Supervision Office of the City of Oulu and a member of the working group, about the positive experiences of ‘straightforward’ guidance provided by the City of Oulu.

– It is 50 to 100 times more energy efficient to invest in energy counselling in the building phase than in the new energy production required by energy-consuming buildings, comments Seppälä.

The working group that prepared the report had 19 participants. The group was well aware that their proposal requires resources, which are always scarce in the short term.

– The logic is that in the longer term and through successful counselling, the resources required to implement the model will be recovered many times over through the benefits of saving energy and improving the service level, says Lahti.

The proposed model is not carved in stone, but only a proposal for decision-makers. However, a lot of planning work and the expertise of the best Finnish actors in the field have been utilised while preparing the model. Irrespective of what the model will be like when it is put into practice, its implementation requires a common will and the ability to cooperate, as well as defining the responsibilities and sufficient allocation of resources.

The Ministry of Employment and the Economy will now start to work on organising energy counselling.

– I assure that I will do my best to ensure that the work initiated by Sitra bears fruit and that in the near future, we will have an effective model for organising energy counselling in Finland, said Minister of Labour Tarja Cronberg on receiving the report.

The entire operations of Sitra are governed by the vision to act as an enabler of “systemic changes” that generate well-being. From the perspective of the Energy Programme, improving the model for organising energy counselling is exactly that kind of a change.

The entire operations of Sitra are directed by the vision to act as an enabler of “systemic changes” that generate well-being. From the perspective of the Energy Programme, improving the model for organising energy counselling is exactly that kind of a change.

– While coming up with the model, we had plenty of new insights, and the different actors in the field have learned from each other. Everything we have learned will also be put in practice in future projects of Sitra’s Energy Programme, Lahti promises.

Further information

The report and its background reports in PDF format »
(in Finnish)

Jukka Noponen, Executive Director, Energy Programme,
tel. +358 9 6189 9430 or +358 40 587 4323, firstname.lastname@sitra.fi

Vesa-Matti Lahti, Business Director, Energy Programme, tel. +358 9 6189 9446 or +358 50 387 3188, firstname.lastname@sitra.fi

www.sitra.fi/energy»

Sitra’s Energy Programme contributes to improving the energy-efficiency of the built environment and the energy awareness of Finns, in addition to creating new business opportunities from the transition that the energy sector is undergoing. The programme will seek innovative operating models and technologies to attain improved energy efficiency and invests in companies in the sector to accelerate their growth and internationalisation.

Members of the working group that examined the organisation of energy counselling

  • Juha Beurling, The Finnish Consumers’ Association
  • Ilkka Cantell, Ministry of Employment and the Economy
  • Harri Hakaste, Ministry of the Environment
  • Eva Heiskanen, National Consumer Research Centre
  • Suvi Holm, Ekokumppanit Oy
  • Saara Jääskeläinen, Ministry of Transport and Communications
  • Ossi Kuittinen, Sitra
  • Päivi Laitila, Motiva Oy
  • Kalevi Luoma, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (Kuntaliitto)
  • Mauri Marttila, the Finnish Real Estate Federation
  • Juhani Nenonen, Suomen Omakotiliitto (the Finnish Association for Own Homes)
  • Jukka Noponen, Energy Programme, Sitra
  • Minna Perähuhta, Ministry of the Environment
  • Maija Puomila, Consumer Agency
  • Kimmo Rautiainen, Motiva Oy
  • Antti Riivari, Ministry of Employment and the Economy
  • Pekka Seppälä, the City of Oulu
  • Rauno Tolonen, Helsingin Energia
  • Heikki Väisänen, Ministry of Employment and the Economy  

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