A network approach to overcoming barriers to market engagement for SMEs in energy efficiency initiatives such as the Green Deal

Abstract

The Green Deal (GD) was launched in 2013 by the UK Government as a market-led scheme to encourage uptake of energy efficiency measures in the UK and create green sector jobs. The scheme closed in July 2015 after 30 months due to government concerns over low uptake and industry standards but additional factors potentially contributed to its failure such as poor scheme design and lack of understanding of the customer and supply chain journey. We explore the role of key delivery agents of GD services, specifically SMEs, and we use the LoCal-Net project as a case study to examine the use of networks to identify and reduce barriers to SME market engagement. We find that SMEs experienced multiple barriers to interaction with the GD such as lack of access to information, training, and confusion over delivery of the scheme but benefited from interaction with the network to access information, improve understanding of the scheme, increasing networking opportunities and forming new business models and partnerships to reduce risk. The importance of SMEs as delivery agents and their role in the design of market-led schemes such as the GD are discussed with recommendations for improving SME engagement in green sector initiatives.

Worth the risk? An evaluation of alternative finance mechanisms for residential retrofit

“…This research identifies the point of sale as the critical juncture in the customer journey in which to promote both the retrofit measures and the financing package in a clear and compelling way to households. This supports previous research which identifies the significance of how costs and benefits of retrofit are presented to households (Hoicka et al, 2014) and the importance of a trusted and competent advisor in disseminating this information (O'Keeffe et al, 2016;Risholt and Berker, 2013). Our findings therefore suggest that schemes are most successful, when the technical and financial elements of the customer offering are integrated by a single competent advisor -as is the case in the German KfW scheme (Rosenow et al, 2013a).…”

“…These findings support previous critiques of the UK's Green Deal which involved a complex vetting and application process, requiring a separate interface with a third-party provider (O'Keeffe et al, 2016;Rosenow and Eyre, 2016). This complexity may be further compounded when additional policy measures interact with retrofit programs, such as the smart meter rollout (McCoy and Lyons, 2017) reducing household uptake.…”

“…Although individual elements of a finance mechanism influence the customer journey, the concept summarizes the household's experience of how these elements are integrated. • Complex or lengthy customer journeys have been shown to negatively impact the uptake of residential retrofit finance (O'Keeffe et al, 2016). Specific issues include poor integration with the timing of wider renovations (Fawcett, 2014), complex applications and limited information (Marchand et al, 2015), low trust in the provider (Risholt and Berker, 2013), and a lack of co-ordination with the supply chain (Brown, 2018).…”

Supply Chain Management for Improved Energy Efficiency: Review and Opportunities

“…) represents one of the main opportunities in overcoming the existing barriers[25]. The key aspects of SCM are depicted inFigure 3.…”

Adoption of sustainable retrofit in UK social housing 2010-2015

“…Guertler et al (2013) conducted a scathing critique of the policy, blaming issues such as lack of clarity in the policy, overambitious targets, issues with repayment projections, credit costs and poor engagement with consumers, for the policy's failure, criticisms echoed by Rosenow and Eyre (2016). Some of the issues with the Green Deal led to the development of a supporting subsidy, known as the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (O'Keeffe et al, 2016), which was a finite pot to be drawn down to support Green Deal installations. Again, while not directly focused on social housing, it was possible for tenants to apply with agreement from their landlord.…”