Co-creating Community-level Indicators: Involving Communities in the Digitalization of Energy for Empowering Energy Citizenship

Abstract

Energy citizenship refers to the participation of individuals or communities in activities that support the green transition. Whilst individuals may set their own targets for greener living, several initiatives are also being designed and encouraged at the city and regional level, e.g., renewable energy cooperatives and increased electric mobility. Enacting change is a long-term process, requiring monitoring and possible adaptation along the way and initiatives may fail without buy-in from the local community. Digitalization of energy and energy-related systems can produce large quantities of data that the has potential for helping to achieve green targets and monitor progress against them. However, when the initiatives and the data collected to monitor them are defined in a purely top-down manner it risks missing the priorities of local communities, which may affect willingness to participate. This paper explores a co-creation process through which local communities define transition goals and ways to monitor the progress that reflects their own priorities in the form of community-level level indicators (CLIs), as well as the metrics needed to track them. It will explore a common template for defining CLIs and describe their use within several green initiatives across Europe.