Energy Efficiency in Tenant-Owners' Residences: The Process of Going from Objective to Implementation

This article focuses on how Sweden's largest tenant-owners' organization, HSB, deals with energy efficiency. The aim is to examine HSB's energy goals, how they are determined and how they should be implemented at four levels: the national association, the regional office, the local housing co-operatives and the tenant-owners. Representatives of all four levels were interviewed. Achieving energy goals calls for common strategies involving all levels of HSB. The analysis indicates that ambitious energy goals have not been followed up with similarly ambitious implementation plans by the organization. Champions in HSB mobilize support for energy efficiency at the regional and co-operative levels, but have no effect on household engagement. The lack of interest in energy efficiency on the part of households was not only due to the collective metering of energy, but also because energy constitutes only a small part of household life.