ENERGY CAFE CHRONICLES

Last month we announced our UKPN Power Partners funding for 22 energy cafes across Lambeth, Merton and Wandsworth throughout winter 2019/2020. This funding covers training of our new energy advisors, followed by two successful energy cafes held at Morden Library throughout November.

The training session was run by our very own Alex Hartley, SELCE/CREW crossover member and all-round community energy guru. Over this extensive training weekend, she trained 8 energy advisors - including some students from Bristol and Queen Mary universities and UCL - in how to provide energy advice.

One of our new volunteers, Peter, gives us a run-down of the weekend.

Alex delivered the course in a fun and engaging way meaning that all the volunteers came away armed with information and tools to really make a difference in the community.

It was particularly interesting learning some key facts about energy usage in the UK, areas where savings can be made and the importance of making a property energy efficient. This really opened our minds to what is possible!

We covered the core areas of advice we will offer to people which are categorised as:

• Switching supplier/lower tariffs
• Other discounts and support (e.g. Warm Homes Discount)
• Referrals for larger scale energy efficiency measures, (e.g. fitting a new boiler) through our new partner Thinking Works
• Energy efficiency behaviour change

There is obviously a lot we can offer people but one of the keys areas which we also focussed on was personal interaction with people, most of whom will be sceptical to begin with. We covered off our introductions, active listening, questioning skills and general rapport building. This was all reinforced and practised through role play which was really valuable. With Alex’s experience she really has a lot of knowledge and insight to share with us in this area.

Knowing that CREW has so much to offer people and, after the weekend, I think all volunteers came away with a sense of keenness to get involved and start to help others in the community. We now also know there is a great support and infrastructure provided by CREW to support this initiative.

​For more info on our upcoming energy cafes, head to our energy cafes page.