Meeting a Common Challenge: Optimizing Energy Practices and Behaviors

BASIC CITY DATA

• Population size: 109,149

• Population growth rate (%): 2.34

• Surface area (sq.km): 14.50

• Population density (people/sq.km): 421.00

• GDP per capita (USD): 34,135.00

• GINI index: 0.35

• Main source of prosperity: trade

ABSTRACT

The Action"Meeting a Common Challenge: Optimizing Energy Practices and Behavior"(MCC) was launched 3 years ago in 2015. MCC was initiated by the Sustainability Department. in the Kfar Saba Municipality to disseminate Smart Energy Management Systems in schools as a model for citizens' engagement in enhanced energy management. MCC was built upon the premise that technological advances must be accompanied by behavioral change to have maximal impact in energy reduction and efficiency. 

Fifteen municipality units and 18 schools took originally part in MCC, as well as 6 municipal departments. Activities included developing technological data monitoring systems, a school curriculum, and trainings to build capacity for energy efficiency in the project locations. 

Moreover, by including schools of Arab municipalities of the Southern Triangle, municipal departments and schools in Kfar Saba could improve their relationship with the neighboring councils as a tool for empowering partnerships with marginalized populations in Israel.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION 

In 2008, Kfar Saba joined the Forum 15 by signing the Convention for Reducing Air Pollution and for Climate Protection ("the Climate Convention"), a local-Israeli version of the international convention of ICLEI organization.

The convention also commits municipalities to developing a strategy of urban sustainability, with regard to the following fields of activity, among others: waste and recycling, energy efficiency… education and outreach.

Moreover, by signing the Paris agreement in 2015,   Israel committed to reduce 17% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

ORIGINS

The initial seeds for MCC's creation were sowed by a group of active citizens, in the framework of a citizen engagement forum for urban sustainability (facilitated by the municipality). The citizens initiated one of the first municipal initiatives for disseminating Energy Management Systems in households in Israel. The pilot resulted in important understanding of the application of Energy Management Systems and increased motivation for further experimentation with this valuable tool. 

Furthermore, Kfar Saba is located next to number of Arab municipalities. As part of this challenge, the city is encouraging values of tolerance and the cooperation's between different sectors, mainly between Jews and Arabs schools.

Overall, 360 pupils and 40 staff members participated in a 30-hour training program, targeting nearly 10,000 pupils and hundreds of teachers from 9 Kfar Saba schools and 9 Southern Triangle schools (5 Arab municipalities). 

From the very beginning, were involved in the initiative the European Union, the ministries of Environment and Energy, the Tel Aviv University and the private company Greentops.

Based on vast research that shows the potential effects of smart, active and accurate feedback on people's energy use, the purpose of the MCC's project was to improve behavioral change and"social factors"(e.g social norms, competitiveness) in motivating users to improve their energy performances. These performances were objectively measured: electric consumption changes each week, savings of greenhouse gasses and kilowatt hours from the beginning of the year …

This also included ranking the performance of different compounds within the schools; ranking the performance of all the participating schools according to various parameters (e.g. per working\night hour, normalized to number of pupils).

MCC's innovativeness comes from creating a platform, which allows the non-expert user – being a teacher, a municipal employee or even a young pupil – to understand energy data and translate that understanding into concrete energy saving actions.

MCC's innovativeness stems also from its ability to reach various populations in Israel – including marginalized populations in the Arab Sector in Israel.   

The MCC's initiative was funded by EU-SUDEP (Sustainable Urban Demonstration Energy)program at 80% when the city of Kfar Saba assumed the remaining 20%. 

INNOVATIVE ASPECTS

After installing the smart energy management system in each participating school and municipal building, the MCC involved the engagement of local"energy delegates", who were trained and empowered to lead an energy transition in their institution. Each school recruited a group of 15-25 pupils a 'leading teacher' that planned and carried out a bi-annual campaign to inform, motivate and influence energy behavior of their fellow students and teachers. The first year has recorded a reduction in 11 % of the global energy consumption and the second year even register a 20 % reduction when were added workshops and record days. During the third year, it was no longer just a question of the behavior change but also of the efficiency of electrical infrastructures of each building. 

Building on its initial success in schools, MCC turned to its next target; 1,000 households engaged in on-line energy management. Using a novel on-line calculator, households feed data on their energy use, appliances and behavior in order to receive a 'social rank' comparing them to their neighbors, and giving recommendations on how to improve performances.

MCC adopted available Energy Management Information Technologies, which were implemented in the private sector in Israel in the last couple of decades (mostly in the industrial sector). However, most of the applied EMSs targeted energy engineers and demanded advanced energy expertise for analysing the data.    

DESIRED CHANGE OR OUTCOME 

The main expected results concerned behavior change and ultimately electrical consumption. The value target of global consumption was a reduction of 9% during project duration relative to baseline and we achieved a reduction of 20 %.       

We used 16 indicators divided in 5 categories:

1. Optimize energy management practices of project participants with the aim of reducing overall energy (3 indicators)

2. Educate and build capacity in target groups to optimize energy-related practices and investments (5 indicators)

3. Enhanced cooperation among Jewish and Arab target groups (2 indicators)

4. Establish joint Jewish-Arab capacity building for improved energy performance (1 indicator)

5. Disseminate good practices to local authorities, populations and schools in Israel (6 indicators)

Concerning the first category, we used automatic measurement based on a current transformer monitoring/ metering system coupled to the E-gauge program of Greentops (dashboard permitting visualization of electrical consumption in kilowatt-hour, tons of CO2 and money savings). Concerning the other categories the measurement of the different indicators were based on periodical reports of the stakeholders (project manager, school principals, energy delegates – 15-20 students and 2 teachers - , …)

In 2017 the Ministry of Energy published a call for proposals for local authorities to replicate MCC, targeting some 100 schools nationwide. To achieve this, Kfar Saba and the Ministry worked together to publish the first manual for Smart Energy Management in Schools.

Also note that the EU-SUDEP disseminated the outputs from the Kfar Saba MCC project in other municipalities and similar energy management platforms were created in cities in Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia.

LEARNING ASPECTS

Saving the planet and simultaneously saving money can serve as a powerful and positive drive to establish dialogue and cooperation between populations who at best coexist at worst are ignoring each other.

RELEVANCE TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

• Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

• Target 9: Improving resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters and implement holistic disaster risk management

• Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns