Having worked on many projects in the fields of smart cities, sustainable architecture and energy efficiency, by following up on experiences from our clients and their customers, we have learnt that although there are constant advances in available products, technology and engineering solutions, it is of equal importance how people accept, perceive and use these novelties. For this reason, we teamed up with a group of IT engineers and co-founded a start-up that, through use of digital technologies, aims to supports individuals and households to change behaviour in a sustainable direction. Start-up is called WE power.
WE power is a digital community platform that educates and motivates citizens to save energy in their households and utilizes achieved savings to finance local projects and initiatives that contribute to higher quality of life in the local community. These might include building playgrounds and gardens or equipping shared spaces. WE power is intended to operate via a mobile app that provides users with easy-to-follow advices how they can reduce their energy usage by small changes in behaviour. The app will be linked to smart metering system and display a simple and easy to understand representation of individual energy consumption and savings, as well as how and in which amount are these savings contributing to development of the neighbourhood.
WE power has been presented and awarded at several start-up competitions in Norway and Sweden. We are currently negotiating with Municipalities in these countries about potential neighbourhoods for piloting the project. To be continued.