Social housing providers as unlikely low-carbon innovators

Cauvain, Jenni; Karvonen, Andrew

Abstract

Social housing providers have recently emerged as unlikely innovators of low carbon transitions in the UK residential sector. They tend to have a significant amount of influence over large housing stocks, opportunities to access funding to retrofit on a large scale, can make explicit connections between reduced carbon emissions and improved quality of life for low-income residents, and foster a close relationship with the place and communities they serve. In effect, social housing providers are ‘middle actors’ who not only facilitate but also realise low carbon transitions through various strategies. This paper uses empirical findings from interviews with social housing providers in Greater Manchester to understand the different ways that low carbon and energy efficiency innovation is being undertaken in this sector. The findings reveal that as middle actors, social landlords influence upstream to policy makers and regulators, downstream to individual households, and sideways to other actors in the social housing sector as well as to other building and energy professionals. The findings reveal opportunities for governments to supplement their existing policies with recognising and supporting middle actors to accelerate low carbon transitions of the built environment.

Citation

Cauvain, J., & Karvonen, A. (2018). Social housing providers as unlikely low-carbon innovators. Energy and Buildings, 177, 394-401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.08.012

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 6, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 17, 2018
• Publication Date: Oct 15, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 24, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 18, 2019
• Journal: Energy and Buildings
• Print ISSN: 0378-7788
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 177
• Pages: 394-401
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.08.012
• Keywords: Social housing; Innovation; Energy; Low carbon; Retrofit
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1129827
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778817342184
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Social housing providers as unlikely low-carbon innovators; Journal Title: Energy and Buildings; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.08.012; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.