Gender inclusive energy transition

PROJECT OVERVIEW: BRIDGE is an initiative by the European Commission bringing together projects in the renewable energy field to share best practices and deliver recommendations for speeding up the energy transition. It has 4 sub-groups: Data management; business models; citizen engagement; regulation.

MY ROLE: Lead of the citizen engagement sub-group “Gender inclusive energy transition”, which looks at methodologies to empower women’s agency, role and energy literacy in behavioural change. This is part of my work as citizen engagement lead for GridAbility in the Italian pilot of the HESTIA project.

WHY IT MATTERS: Because of the gender roles ingrained in our societies, men tend to be more present and active in the citizen engagement activities of energy projects. This presence is often not mirrored in a commitment to energy-consuming caring and housekeeping tasks, which women traditionally cover. Creating spaces for women to voice their household experience and understand why and how they can form new energy habits, is a powerful approach to accelerate an inclusive transition and reshape gender roles.