Sur­vey: Oulu inhab­i­tants inter­est­ed in low-ener­gy and cli­mate-friend­ly solu­tions

One of the aims of the Mak­ing City project is to increase debate on ener­gy effi­cien­cy and encour­age res­i­dents for ener­gy sav­ing.

Last spring, a sur­vey of Oulu inhab­i­tants was con­duct­ed to gauge their views on issues such as ener­gy con­sump­tion habits as well as envi­ron­men­tal impacts and how to mit­i­gate them. The sur­vey results sug­gest the most impor­tant way to affect the cli­mate impact of elec­tric­i­ty and ener­gy con­sump­tion are indus­try, busi­ness, and state and local gov­ern­ment deci­sion-mak­ing, but action byin­di­vid­ual inhab­i­tants may also mat­ter.

The vast major­i­ty of respon­dents try to make ener­gy con­sump­tion choic­es to affect the envi­ron­ment. 95% of the respon­dents con­sid­er some degree of envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness as a selec­tion cri­te­ri­on in their per­son­al choic­es. The respon­dents also report­ed pay­ing atten­tion to sav­ing ener­gy in their every­day lives. Near­ly every respon­dent said they turned off the lights as they left home, two thirds of the respon­dents made low ener­gy pur­chase, and more than half had cut down on the use of warm water or low­ered indoor tem­per­a­tures.

The respon­dents said their homes had some smart func­tions to mon­i­tor or opti­mize elec­tric­i­ty con­sump­tion. These smart fea­tures affect­ed heat­ing, light­ing, air con­di­tion­ing or vehi­cle heat­ing. One of the aims of the Mak­ing City project is to arouse con­ver­sa­tion on ener­gy effi­cien­cy and encour­age the res­i­dents to mon­i­tor and opti­mize their con­sump­tion habits.

In order to pro­mote aware­ness of ener­gy issues and change con­sump­tion habits, the respon­dents would like to have com­par­a­tive data with oth­er house­holds and more detailed break­downs of the com­po­si­tion of their own ener­gy con­sump­tion. To pro­mote ener­gy effi­cien­cy, inhab­i­tants expect advice and rec­om­men­da­tions for ener­gy-sav­ing habits and actions as well as for reduc­ing mate­r­i­al con­sump­tion.

The sur­vey was car­ried out by VTT Tech­ni­cal Research Cen­tre of Fin­land as part of the Mak­ing City project that is based on the Oulu City Strat­e­gy 2026 and its envi­ron­men­tal pro­gramme, sup­ports their ener­gy and mate­ri­als effi­cien­cy goals, and pro­motes the city’s car­bon neu­tral­i­ty objec­tive.

More infor­ma­tion about the Mak­ing City project avail­able online (in Finnish): www.ouka.fi/kaukovainio.