Sprinting to Net Zero - People Lab by ESC

Sprinting to net zero in uk homes

Using a design sprint to increase the appeal of energy efficiency measures

The Challenge

Home heating accounts for around 20% of the UK’s carbon emissions. Most of our 27m homes are not up to scratch to be zero-carbon. They’re leaky, cold and expensive to heat.

To meet the government’s 2050 net-zero target, we need a nationwide programme to upgrade existing housing stock.

This is a challenging target. It’s technically difficult and very hard for customers to know:

What home improvements will work
What benefits they can expect
How they can afford it

Our Approach

Big Clean Switch (BCS) – a B Corp energy switching site – approached Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) with a concept for a new digital platform. A place to help domestic energy customers make informed choices about their home energy improvements.

We invited BCS to Birmingham for a four-day Design Sprint. Over these four days, together we refined the concept, then designed, built and tested a solution.

We set a specific scope on what to create during the Sprint. Over the next four days, our objective was:

“to prototype and test the assessment, recommendation and referral phases of the platform”

Based on the sprint objective, we curated a bespoke schedule of design methods and activities. The aim was to gather insights and create meaningful outputs that would be useful for any future investment opportunities.

We had huge ambitions for our development sprint with ESC, but very little time to deliver it. ESC made sure we had exactly the right mix of skills and experience in the room, and kept us focused in our approach while at the same time creating space to hammer out the fundamentals. The result is we’ve moved from ideas to investment deck in the space of four days.

Jon Fletcher, Founder - Big Clean Switch

The Result

We recruited five people who had an active interest in home upgrade.

The team created a prototype website called “Best Home Plan”. Our five testers each received an email with a bespoke offer based on their home value and EPC rating. Their offer detailed estimates based on deployed energy measures. These estimates were for increase in home value, energy savings and carbon reduction.

In the space of four days, the team had: