The HARP partners have launched their first national heating campaigns to promote the use of the HARP tool and encourage the uptake of efficient heating solutions. In France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain national-level activities have informed consumers & professionals about the recently launched HARP online tool with the aim to raise awareness about the inefficiency of heating systems and accelerate their replacement rate.
The French HARP campaign was launched on 10 February. Both consumers and professionals were targeted with multiple actions. The campaign started with a month dedicated to reaching out to consumers. A newsletter about the project was sent on the heating campaign launch date, which was followed with posts about the HARP tool and project on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. The second edition of the French HARP webinar dedicated to professionals was held on 25 March. ENERGIES2050, Energies et avenir and Uniclima, our French project partners, introduced the tool, provided project updates and presented its future national action plan. Promotional activities aimed at professionals began a week before, by posting news and updates as well as launching a dedicated HARP web page on Uniclima’s website. In addition, the follow-up included reaching out to individual installers, retailers, and other professional organisations.
The German national heating campaign started on 22 March. The campaign placed a strong focus on awareness-raising for the issue of inefficient heating systems, by employing the information materials to encourage the use of the HARP tool. The primary channels of communications are the social networking platform Twitter and the national project website, but more efforts to engage in different platforms will follow in the future.
The Italian campaign started on 16 March and will go on until the end of June. The first heating campaign was mainly focused on consumers, as the current Italian version of the tool only allows generating labels to existing heating appliances. The second functionality, which will provide information about the best solutions for efficient heating to professionals, will be available at a later stage for which targeted training sessions are foreseen. However, the first campaign already includes engagement activities for professionals organised by our Italian project partners Assotermica and ENEA. In particular, professionals will be reached through advertising the HARP tool and materials with Assotermica associated firms, other ANIMA associations and National Expert Forum members.
These activities will be complemented with social media actions, boosted by EURAC’s website and social media pages. Advocacy efforts will continue to be carried out, with the final aim of implementing tools similar to HARP into legislation.
Our Portuguese partners ADENE and DECO launched the first HARP heating campaign on 17 February. The end of the campaign is scheduled for 29 May, in alignment with the Portuguese National Day for Energy. The campaign focuses on laying the ground for the promotion of the HARP tool by generating awareness on the importance of efficient heating, fighting misconceptions and providing information on how to make more efficient choices and why they are advantageous. With civil society as the main target, the campaign will highlight infographics and media materials on the website and social network platforms, in addition to the local and regional media. By the end of March, around 35.000 people had already been reached through various social media platforms and around 70 articles were sent out to the local and regional press in an effort to ensure a successful campaign.
The first Spanish HARP heat campaign was launched on 15 February, with a dedicated press release and a presentation about the project. To target the consumers, materials, such as factsheets, videos or serious games, were prepared and are currently being shared on social media for an effective engagement. Moreover, a workshop dedicated to energy efficiency will be held to reach more consumers. This initiative has been developed in collaboration with BELT, another Horizon 2020 project. In addition, the second National Expert Forum was held by the end of April to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign, to show the use of HARP and to catch the attention of another targeted group – professionals in the heating sector. The next heating campaign will focus on increasing the awareness of the heating label through dedicated materials and training for professionals.
Discover our engagement materials!
The HARP partners closely worked together in preparing targeted engagement materials for consumers and professionals. Each of the materials was translated into the respective national language and disseminated on the national level as part of the different heating campaigns. Take a look at the English versions of the materials:
Consumers
- Articles
- Factsheets
Professionals
- Articles