Creating Smart Neighborhoods: Insights from Two Low-Carbon Communities in Sheffield and Leeds, United Kingdom

This paper presents the design and implementation of a state-of-the-art ICT system to facilitate energy efficiency in two residential developments in Leeds and Sheffield (UK). Reflexive design practice understands end users as active agents in service design and the energy-efficiency agenda—underpinned by a new energy paradigm based on better information. The paper also demonstrates how ICTs can facilitate community-based energy governance, and what wider benefits a neighborhood approach can bring to both the social embedding of energy efficiency and future innovation. It also demonstrates how energy-efficiency technologies and data offer added value to inhabitants making purchase and rental decisions.