Pathways to scale: Retrofitting One Million+ homes

Australia needs a targeted and coordinated effort to retrofit the millions of existing homes. This report presents the foundational research that will underpin an effort to engage private finance to begin by retrofitting over one million Australian homes for thermal and energy efficiency. The scheme aims to retrofit homes so that they can support Australia’s current and future comfort and energy needs and facilitate the transition to renewable energy. The way we generate and use energy is transforming. Our homes need to evolve alongside this to support our needs for comfort, efficiency, and resilience. Maximising thermal and energy efficiency in homes, moving energy demand into periods of maximum renewable generation, and enabling electrification can also support the transition toward net zero. Based on modelling in this report, retrofitting one million existing Australian homes across five years could: • Reduce average home energy use by up to 9,000kWh per year • Reduce average home emissions by up to 5.8 tonnes CO2 eq per year • Create an up to $55 billion private finance investment opportunity A bespoke home retrofit, addressing needs identified through a whole-of-home assessment could reduce an average home energy bill by up to$1,600 per year. A large-scale home retrofit scheme can create jobs for Australian communities, reduce energy use for heating and cooling and cut carbon emissions whilst stimulating private investment. This is evidenced by international retrofit programs. This project reviewed eight international programs from the United Kingdom, Europe, United States of America, and New Zealand. These programs demonstrated that large-scale retrofits can be effectively implemented and yield positive impacts including stimulate investment, save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emission, increase employment and local business activity, provide good return on investment of public money (1:4+), create health benefits for home occupants and increase property value. The research outlined in this report supports development of a public-private partnership to retrofit one million plus homes, across five years. It recommends that a large-scale home retrofit scheme aims to create future ready homes. That is; improved thermal comfort with a path toward electrification. The report outlines key insights to inform the design and implementation of an effective retrofit scheme. It then recommends a suite of coordinated actions required from stakeholders across the Australian home retrofit ecosystem to support a large-scale scheme. It also paves the way for a longer-term research program that can fill gaps in our current understanding to maximise the effectiveness of home retrofits at scale. There is a substantial market opportunity in Australia. The task ahead is large and complex, yet feasible through collaborative efforts. And now more than ever before. The PAGE 4 Pathways to Scale: Retrofitting One Million+ Homes insights for effective retrofit scheme design and recommendations for a portfolio of coordinated action outlined in this report can guide this effort and transform Australia’s existing homes for a prosperous, net-zero emissions future

Climate Action In Megacities 3.0

"Climate Action in Megacities 3.0" (CAM 3.0) presents major new insights into the current status, latest trends and future potential for climate action at the city level. Documenting the volume of action being taken by cities, CAM 3.0 marks a new chapter in the C40-Arup research partnership, supported by the City Leadership Initiative at University College London. It provides compelling evidence about cities' commitment to tackling climate change and their critical role in the fight to achieve global emissions reductions

Financial Technologies in the Cycle of Poor Mental Health and Financial Hardship: Towards Financial Citizenship

It is well documented that people living with mental health con- ditions are more likely to experience fnancial difculties. When explaining this association, emphasis has often been placed on fnancial capability, i.e. the capacity of those living with poor men- tal health to manage their money. This paper challenges such capability-based explanations by reporting on a diary study and interviews with 14 people who self-identify as living with a men- tal health condition. We focused on their experiences of fnancial technology use, and explored the role technology played in their strategies to minimise the impact of mental health on their eco- nomic circumstances. Rather than lacking capability, participants’ practices revealed shortcomings of existing fnancial technologies and how they sought to work around these. We conclude by pro- viding a set of design directions for technologies that engage those living with poor mental health not as vulnerable targets for fnancial inclusion, but as full fnancial citizens

Co-designed or evidenced based? Developing digital self-management interventions for long-term conditions

Self-management interventions for long-term conditions may improve the quality of life. Psychosocial techniques can be delivered via digital technologies such as smartphone applications. Interventions should be useful and meaningful to users, but also theory- and evidence-based. This chapter explores some of the processes and challenges involved in developing self-management interventions using co-design, theory, and evidence. Drawing on app development research focused on supporting those with Sjögren’s syndrome (an autoimmune and rheumatic disease with complex symptom patterns), the chapter discusses the practical difficulties we had in generating and respecting individuals’ ideas, preferences, requirements, and creativity, while acknowledging the need for an intervention to include established cognitive components, behaviour change techniques, and “active ingredients”. The chapter is organised around three tensions from our project where our ambition to co-design the intervention with participants was challenged and contradicted. In such situations, we often found ourselves having to judge the relevancy or compatibility of participants’ viewpoints and lived experiences against the evidence base. We close with critical reflections on these tensions, discussing the potential limits of co-design and user-led approaches to creating health and care interventions in a disciplinary culture of evidence-based practice. We offer a series of implications for conducting design research in the area of self-managing long-term conditions, identifying ways for the competing paradigms of co-design and evidence-based design to be bridged

An Age-Old Problem: Examining the Discourses of Ageing in HCI and Strategies for Future Research

Ageing has become a significant area of interest in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in recent years. In this article we provide a critical analysis of 30 years of ageing research published across the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) community. Discourse analysis of the content of 644 archival papers highlights how ageing is typically framed as a “problem” that can be managed by technology. We highlight how ageing is typically defined through an emphasis on the economic and societal impact of health and care needs of older people, concerns around socialisation as people age, and declines in abilities and associated reductions in performance when using technology. We draw from research within the fields of social and critical gerontology to highlight how these discourses in SIGCHI literature represent common stereotypes around old age that have also prevailed in the wider literature in gerontology. We conclude by proposing strategies for future research at the intersection of ageing and HCI

"Pick Someone Who Can Kick Your Ass" - Moneywork in Financial Third Party Access

This paper explores some of the new possibilities for financial third party access that are enabled by "open banking". The term open banking is used to designate the availability of banks' customer data through application programming interfaces (APIs). Financial third party access refers to the mechanisms that facilitate the engagement of others in the management of our personal finances. Engaging trusted others in personal finances may be especially valuable for individuals experiencing financial hardship or life circumstances that place their financial stability at risk. We deployed a new third party access tool enabled by the UK Open Banking APIs for 90 days with 14 people who self-identified as living with a mental health condition. The tool, which was developed by a financial technology startup founded by the second author, allowed participants to select a trusted "ally" who was notified when certain transactions took place in participants' bank accounts. During the deployment, the 14 participants and 8 of their "allies" took part in a diary study and pre- and post-deployment interviews. The experiences of our participants reveal the inadequacy and shortcomings of existing formal third party access mechanisms, and the moneywork involved in financial third party access. We argue that focusing on this moneywork can help us design flexible, proportionate and practice-sensitive services for financial third party access that move beyond discourses of protection and control in order to enable meaningful financial collaboration

Making family care work

Supporting independent living for the ageing population in later life is an often-cited application area for ubiquitous computing. Telecare services such as remote monitoring systems are now coming onto the consumer market but there is little knowledge of the impact these technologies may have on relationships between family members and older relatives. We present findings from a live field trial of SHel - a telecare system that allows nominated caregivers to remotely monitor activities - in 17 older adult's homes. Interviews were conducted with the 17 older participants and 11 of their nominated caregivers before, during and after using the system. We establish that such technologies transform existing hidden care routines between family members into care work, and the impact they have upon the sense of independence and privacy of those who are being monitored in their home