Residents of Amsterdam increasingly have the desire to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, due to the long-term increase in the cost of energy and the increased awareness of the urgency for reducing CO2 emissions. While advice for saving energy has been available to homeowners for a long time, residents of social housing have not had the same access to information. In addition, there is a large opportunity to save both energy and money from improving the energy efficiency of social housing.

The Step2Save project aimed to reduce the energy use and CO2 emissions of 10,000 social housing households in Amsterdam. It will also help lower income households reduce the proportion of their income spent on electricity. Through a year of training and work experience, the Step2Work project will improve the employment opportunities of unemployed young people, aged 18 to 30. 

The energy company NUON provided 10 young people with training as energy advisers, through the Step2Save programme. In the subsequent year the 10 advisers would visit 10,000 social housing households. They provided each household with an electricity meter and advice on improving energy efficiency.

The project successfully trained 10 energy advisers. To date more than 2,500 households have received their electricity meter. With the advice and the meter, each household should save an average of 5% (€7) a year on their energy bills and reduce their CO2 emissions by 200kg.

The Step2Save has benefited young unemployed people, social housing households and the environment by reducing CO2 emission.

The project required the co-operation of the different parties. Human resource inputs and the financial investment of the sponsor was crucial to the success of the project.

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Amsterdam
The Netherlands
www.step2save.nl
Sanne Bouwman (Project Manager, Step2Save), tel. + 31 2 520 6363

//2007

case

Urban Policy > Housing > Housing quality

Energy efficiency