Co-creative communities
Zero Carbon Rugeley
Zero Carbon Rugeley is a project to produce an innovative design for a town-wide Smart Local Energy System (SLES). The project is unique in that it utilises pioneering User-Centric Design processes to enable the community to help engage with and thus shape the design of the SLES. Keele University lead on designing the User-Centric Design approach, working with partners Chase Community Solar and New Vic Borderlines.
Our User-Centric Design approach is underpinned by differential levels of engagement. The community are able to communicate with us online using social media, where they can participate in the questions we ask, discuss the project, or tell us their vision for a sustainable future. Similarly, the project uses ‘Cultural Animation’ workshops – sessions which use creative, participatory activities - to encourage energy users to really think about the relationship between energy and their local community in new ways.
Through our work, Keele are educating people about how a zero-carbon future is also an opportunity to create a more inclusive, community-led future for all. Our job is to make sure the expertise of the local community shapes the SLES designs.
- Keele Academic Lead: Professor Zoe Robinson / Adam Peacock
- Methods used: