Summary
START2ACT aims to reduce residential energy consumption in the EU via changing the behaviour of consumers in their everyday lives by approaching them at their workplace. With a focus on European start-ups and young SMEs, the project aims at triggering action by young entrepreneurs and their emerging enterprises as well as by the owners and staff of young SMEs to introduce energy efficiency measures within their daily routines. Even though each start-up and SME consumes relatively small energy amounts, the collective environmental impact of 20 million SMEs in the EU is massive, contributing to 64% of environmental impact. Active engagement of start-ups and young SMEs is essential in order to reach the 20-20-20 EU goals and there is market potential for almost all enterprises to cost effectively reduce their energy consumption. START2ACT will unleash the potential of energy savings at European start-ups and young SMEs via a set of innovative educational and capacity building measures. A key area of intervention to increase energy efficiency through behavioural change is office equipment, the fastest growing energy user in the business world, consuming 15% of the total electricity used in offices, which is expected to rise to 30% by 2020.
