We are a team with diverse backgrounds but a shared goal of addressing climate change:
Cloud Heng is a Ph.D. student in engineering studying renewable fuels.
Gaby Moryoussef is a 4th year marketing student with experience at start-up companies.
Jay Olson is a Ph.D. graduate with experience in behavioural science.
Kingston is the first city in Canada to declare a climate emergency and they plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2040. Household energy consumption represents 25% of Kingston’s energy (City of Kingston, 2018).
The incentives for energy conservation are often delayed, abstract, and individual-focused. Feedback about energy reduction is given at the end of the month (on the power bill), framed in abstract kilowatt-hours, and has little community context.
How can we improve the incentives to reduce household energy consumption among student renters, by at least 5% for at least four months over the winter?
(Queen’s University, 2016; Hydro One, 2021)