The use of social media for improving energy consumption awareness and efficiency: An overview of existing tools

Raising consumers’ awareness of energy consumption is one of the first steps in encouraging the adoption of energy saving behaviours that result in energy efficiency. Green information systems are becoming recognised as a solution to many environmental problems although information technology (e.g. disposal of IT devices) has also been associated with causing detrimental effects on the environment. Researchers and practitioners have begun to focus on Green ICT but there is little scholarly research on the use of ICT tools such as social media from an energy efficiency context to raise consumer awareness and improve their engagement in tackling environmental issues. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the use of social media and existing tools for the interaction of people on energy saving discussions and for generating awareness and engagement (which thereby leads to energy efficiency behaviour). In this paper the authors provide a state of the art review around the concept of energy awareness, models of consumer engagement, and more importantly the use of social media in the energy efficiency context. This research is based on a desk-based normative review and seeks to provide a better understanding to both scholars and practitioners involved in the use of ICT for driving energy consumer awareness and engagement for energy efficiency.This work evolved in the context of the project DAREED (Decision support Advisor for innovative business models and useR engagement for smart Energy Efficient Districts), www.dareed.eu, a project co-funded by the EC within FP7, Grant agreement no: 609082

Lab Assistant: A web-based general-purpose software for the delivery and administration of computer based laboratory sessions

The design of a web-based general-purpose software system, named LabAssistant, that supports computer-based laboratory sessions is presented. The aim of LabAssistant is to provide support to the preparation, conduct, evaluation and administration of the laboratory sessions offered by academic institutions. LabAssistant may support both the traditional and distance-learning educational delivery model. LabAssistant is used in collaboration with other domain-specific software such as mathematical modeling tools, simulation software, database management systems, etc. It adopts a step-wise approach to laboratory sessions: at each step a domainspecific task is suggested to the students while the corresponding theory is presented, the appropriate domainspecific software features are explained and useful hints/suggestions related to the suggested task are made available for inspection. All this information (i.e. the domain-specific tasks, software features, related theory, suggestions) and its sequencing is determined by the academic staff during the preparation of the laboratory session and are input to LabAssistant. The students employ LabAssistant to initiate a new laboratory session or continue a previously suspended one and utilize the domain-specific software to accomplish the tasks suggested to them, while LabAssistant keeps track of the student progress. LabAssistant also provides support to administrative tasks related to the regulations and the assessment methods adopted by academic institutions

Challenges and opportunities for improving energy efficiency in SMEs: learnings from seven European projects

This paper analyses challenges and opportunities for improving energy efficiency in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by reviewing research design and results out of seven European projects: SPEEDIER, SMEmPower Efficiency, E2Driver, Innoveas, Triple-A, DEESME and ICCEE. These projects aim to improve SMEs' awareness of energy efficiency and support an effective decision-making-oriented approach to it. Drivers and barriers to energy efficiency improvements in European SMEs of various industrial sectors have been investigated by means of surveys, focused group discussions and interviews. A meta-analysis of the results of the seven EU projects was carried out to discover trends related to energy efficiency in European SMEs; this was supported by the use of a unifying analytic framework that enabled merging and cross-validation of the findings of the seven projects. The analysis indicated, by means of new data collected by the seven projects, that staff training, facilitation of energy audits, development of corporate policy measures and collaboration between SMEs involved in the same supply chain are key mechanisms to improve the uptake of energy efficiency measures in SMEs which has significant potential to achieve higher energy savings and energy cost reductions