Questions/Answers

Domestic electricity demand of Sri Lanka is significant both in terms of volume and impact on peak demand. Cooking energy is another noteworthy component in the overall energy use. Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) is the national agency that holds the responsibility to promote energy efficiency improvement and conservation in the country. Conventional energy conservation initiatives targeting households required enormous budgets, human resources and time. SEA took a distinctly different approach, recognising women as the driving force in conserving domestic energy. This paved the way to launch the concept ‘Energy Efficient Kitchen’. It addressed the knowledge gap of Sri Lankan women on energy efficiency improvement and resource management and hosted the novel concept of sustainable cooking practices. Rather than conventional one way media campaigns, forming a collaboration with a popular ladies newspaper was taken as the best approach in establishing this novel concept within society. The concept was developed into a holistic programme by SEA and stakeholders aiming to enhance the inherent resource thriftiness in women. Empowering knowledge and technical knowhow and engaging beneficiaries through relevant, fruitful competitions were distinguished characteristics of the programme. Involvement of public-women-media-private-policy stakeholders in a continuous campaign and in one mass scale platform was achieved through this programme, which is successfully functioning over three years. The programme ascertained numerous intangible benefits to the country. Electricity saving competitions enabled quantification of the impacts associated with the programme. The participants requesting entry tickets to the wrap-up event has grown by three folds. About 1,340 MWh electricity has been saved through the initiative from electricity bill competition, equivalent to saving of 158,000 USD and 987 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Indirect savings are estimated to be much larger. Five strategies were adopted to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability in the long run addressing economic, social and environment aspects.

Cooking practices, cooking utensils and also the cultural aspects related to household operation in Sri Lanka consumes an unnecessarily high amount of housewife’s time. Apart from reducing productive time, the process makes high energy losses. This programme had the objective to conserve energy in domestic cooking. The programme had following objectives also. • To promote the kitchen to be an energy efficient, clean, attractive place which saves women’s time and effort. • to grab attention of society, media and policy makers on the contribution from women towards household resource thriftiness • to address the capacity building requirements of women through providing lifelong learning opportunities that elevate them with the latest knowledge of energy and resource management • to promote eco-friendly products and to reduce waste • to engage key stakeholders in a common agenda of energy efficiency improvement and conservation Long term agenda is to remind women on sustainable cooking practices in each instance cooking is involved. Changing the mindset of women to sense the importance of energy and resource frugality in all household activities is the long term goal. ‘Resource thriftiness’ can be inculcated into women’s minds, enabling her economic benefits while her knowledge can be readily transferred to other family members with ease.

Energy Efficient Kitchen was the first holistic attempt in Sri Lanka to actively involve public-women-media-private-policy stakeholders in one mass scale platform, discussing the novel theme of sustainable cooking practices and domestic resource/energy consumption. It became an eye opener for society on the impact of activities conducted by women to energy budget of the country. SEA forged an alliance with a leading media firm, who is renowned for popularizing cookery among women. This was much effective than a one way advertising solution. Both organisations could contribute their expert knowledge for the programme design and delivery. It enabled a win-win situation for both parties, achieving expectations beyond they could when operated alone. It saved efforts, time and budgets of both firms. The programme was designed to actively engage women and obtain her feedback as much as possible. Impact of the initiative was enriched through holding competitions on electricity saving. Women could practically apply the knowledge endowed through newspaper articles written by SEA experts to achieve domestic energy savings. In this endeavor of women, it was necessary to engage all family members, even kids, to achieve the common goal of energy saving. Therefore, knowledge transfer from SEA touched the ground level effectively.

The role played by SEA as a public entity had improved the delivery of services to women and the following SDGs are addressed herein. • SDG12: o Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, especially electricity, cooking fuel and domestic resources o Educating on sustainable development and lifestyles using minimal resource utilisation, reusing and recycling • SDG5 o Valuing the contribution made by women in domestic chores (which is an unpaid service) and uplifting responsibilities on domestic energy saving to have a positive, significant impact on the energy efficiency targets of the country. o Providing opportunities for non-managerial public servants of SEA, especially women to hold managerial responsibilities and leadership for the programme. • SDG 7 o Promoting new energy efficient technologies for domestic applications • SDG 4 o Providing lifelong learning opportunities for Sri Lankan women on updated latest technical knowledge and skills. In addition, this is one of the earliest instances where a government organisation took serious note of the contribution that women can make to realise the Nationally Determined Contributions pledged by Sri Lanka at the Paris CoP21 meeting. Initiative promoted role and visibility of SEA and enhanced the professionalism and capacities of existing government staff and stakeholders.

Domestic sector accounts for 36% of the Sri Lankan total electricity demand. Electricity load curve shows that demand is highest in night time, between 1900 – 2100 hrs. This additional demand is met by fossil fuel power plants with high generation cost and high GHG emissions. Moreover, though less talked about, cooking energy consumption is a key player in the total energy balance. Considering both amount and impact, SEA realised the necessity of promoting demand side management and energy conservation programmes targeting households. Up to then, core energy management programmes focused on promoting energy efficiency in large industrial and commercial establishments and less attention was drawn to actively involve mass scale participation of citizens. Such interventions conventionally required large number of repetitive programmes, requiring considerable financial, time/opportunity and human resources. This is beyond existing organisational capacity of SEA with limited staff availability and budget, owing to many other already committed programmes and responsibilities. One way media solutions required large budgets, and did not provide opportunities for knowledge transfer from the media and marketing giants to government staff. An innovative approach to address a large societal group within limited resources with a sound knowledge transfer was a dire necessity.

Women’s role in energy use is of utmost importance as she is involved in many household chores. It is also noteworthy that five fuel types are used by women; viz electricity, LP Gas, biomass, fuel oil/gasoline and kerosene whereas men typically use only two fuel types; viz electricity and fuel oil/gasoline. Sri Lankan workforce comprises of 37% women and making her aware on energy and resource management would give active contribution to commercial energy saving too. SEA was successful in jointly collaborating with a leading ladies weekly newspaper with over a 140,000 circulation having the readership of middle aged women, working women and young girls in marriageable age. The programme spanning more than three months each year was able to create a continuous media dialog with the society on energy and resource saving, obtaining better energy services through efficient equipment, saving natural resources for the future generation, etc.. With the continuous success of this mass scale participatory programme, SEA aligned certain strategies of the new National Energy Policy and Strategies document to be adopted by Government in the near future in recognising the role of women in energy efficiency improvement and conservation programmes in homes with stakeholder support.

Before the programme, domestic sector energy conservation programmes lacked confidence owing to the heavy demand of time, human resource and financial resources as discussed above. SEA was thinking of innovative ways to find an optimum solution instead of this cumbersome process. Hence, a new approach which is holistic, visible and impactful was needed. Till then, women have not been recognised as the driving force of the household energy conservation programmes. Besides a technical approach, the popular culture attached with ‘cookery’ was used as a carrier of our message on energy efficiency. ‘Cookery culture’ is very popular among middle aged women, young girls in marriageable ages and working women. Key topics of cookery culture involved taste, nutrition and hygiene and SEA introduced energy and resource management aspect on this popular stream. On technical perspective, continuous knowledge transfer, active engagement through competitions, promotion of eco-friendly products, etc. were among the programme package. Visibility through media participation, introducing attractive rewarding system and feedback system from public was the distinguished innovation points of the programme. Absorption of tacit knowledge related to marketing and branding to SEA was identified as an additional benefit while implementing such a novel approach.

This is an original concept to the best of SEA knowledge. The concept ‘Energy Efficient Kitchen’ was proposed by Mr. Chaminda Liyanage (Senior Executive of SEA). Concept was gradually developed to a programme through a team of eight SEA staff members (one Director, one Engineer, two Executives and four Management Assistants). Team comprised of 75% women and 50% non-managerial staff, who were empowered to give decision making inputs for the programme. Senior management of SEA provided ample opportunity and freedom to the team with solid leadership and finalised the concept with quality improvements. SEA and Sirikatha brainstormed avenues to engage society and obtain their feedback to the programme to ensure the effectiveness of delivery of the energy management initiatives. SEA team and Sirikatha team agreed upon that competition for reducing electricity bills would be attractive to public. It was continuously announced through Sirikatha, that monthly electricity bills will be paid if electricity is saved than the previous month and a grand raffle draw would be held. It was very successful that the readers had to not only read the energy saving tips presented herein, but also had to apply it within their premises engaging all family members.

Newspaper article series was published in media, covering various topics on energy and resource management by technical expertise of SEA staff. Apart from the eight core team members, other SEA staff committed extended time for the programme after office hours to provide support for the wrap-up event. Around 40 SEA staff (out of total 105 staff members) participated in the wrap-up event each year to facilitate the programme with 1,300 participants. Sirikatha staff deployed much effort in mass scale promotion of the programme and organising the wrap-up event. The electricity bills were paid and three grand prize winners were awarded with household solar electricity systems courtesy of private sponsors. SEA has arranged a reusable gift bag made with recyclable material to all participants. This was in view to reduce polythene bag use among women. It contained promotional materials like an energy efficient cookbook and a booklet on ways to save electricity. Printing budgets were distributed among SEA and Sirikatha. Financial contribution to the programme from 2014 – 2017 are as below. • SEA USD 19,010 • Sirikatha (print media) USD 57,630 • ITN and Lakhanda (electronic media) USD 21,000 • Other private sector sponsors USD 39,930

Yes

The first programme on ‘Energy Efficient Kitchen’ was conducted in 2014, and was in successful operation for three years. The programme was adopted by Ministry of Environment in Sri Lanka in popularizing local resources for domestic cooking. Sri Lankan school curriculum has a subject on ‘Home Science’ which incorporates educating related to cooking and household management. Schools have started to request SEA to conduct ‘Energy Efficient Kitchen’ programme at school premises and such requests were entertained by SEA in 2016. This initiative is transferable to any country or region with ease, having a popular culture related to cookery. Joint collaboration with a firm that has contributed actively to popularising cookery culture would be an ideal partner in replicating similar programme within different regions/countries. Further, the innovative platform to align with existing media programmes is ideal for public sector organisations around the world with limited capacities of finance, human resources and time availability. For countries with unique food culture, similar programmes could be developed using SEA programme as a role model. It is recommended to align such programmes in close association with the country’s existing cookery culture.

Five strategies were implemented to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the programme. 1. Establish mass media linkages, support and co-finance 2. Continuous knowledge transfer 3. Effective and relevant rewarding schemes for the public 4. Involvement of policy makers from cross cutting sectors 5. Scrutinize the objectives, barriers and the outcomes through multiple sources of feedback Economic: First strategy was followed successfully, enabling a win-win situation for both SEA and Sirikatha. Sirikatha offered to co-finance the programme and got chances to popularise a novel concept in the country attracting readers and advertisers over competitive firms. Private companies offered co-finance for the programme to enhance their market outreach. Economic sustainability is thus ensured for the project, wherein the budgetary requirement from the Government is relatively smaller component. Social: Continuous knowledge transfer activities actively engaged women and through public competition which was on reducing monthly electricity bills, needed application of practical aspects related to knowledge shared by SEA in paper articles. Since this reward mechanism was very relevant to the theme of the programme, it was very fruitful. Policy makers from cross cutting sectors are important to ensure long term sustainability and the transferability of the programme. Such policy makers are expected to further strengthen similar programmes to include more opportunities for women. Feedback from multiple sources was enabled to provide better inputs to the programme through scrutinising the objectives, barriers and the outcomes. This enabled many decision making capacities in programmes designed later, such as the LED promotion programme for the lowest energy using households in Sri Lanka. These four aspects were helpful to ascertain the sustainability within social context. Environmental: In environmental aspects, the programme promoted environment friendly products and introduced the knowledge on sustainable consumption and production. Thus it promotes environment sustainability of the country.

Yes. The initiative was sustained for three years in Sri Lanka and can be continued in many more years to come. The concept of ‘Energy Efficient Kitchen’ was well received by public. Evidence is the gradual growth of applicants for the wrap-up event and entries for electricity bill competition. Owing to public enthusiasm, Sirikatha is willing to continue future programmes with SEA. Since SEA has developed a good rapport with many other media firms, similar opportunities are available with different media firms. According to analysis of past programmes, financial contribution from SEA is less than 15% of overall budget. Public sector finance may no longer necessary if more sponsorships are found. Limited requirement of public funds makes it extremely successful in the long run. A major obstacle faced is the limited availability of managerial staff at SEA. This was overcome by empowering non-managerial staff of SEA to be in-charge of certain responsibilities of the overall programme. SEA staff committed extended office hours to ensure the success of the programme. New Engineers were allowed to endow their technical knowledge for the programme under the supervision of senior Engineers. Sense of ownership, self-motivation and satisfaction was induced therein. Empowerment of younger staff and non-managerial staff is a positive dawn to continue the programme in future years with limited involvement of senior staff. Through electricity bill competition, women were successful in reducing the electricity consumed in households. Their efforts would be in vain if family members were not co-operating to their commitment. Achieving household energy saving needed the transfer of both knowledge and attitude to the family members, including children. While children are automatically involved, energy consciousness is transferred from mothers to the future generation.

Yes

Many benefits cropped up from the initiative as below. • this was an eye opener programme which clearly showed that women are the driving force in domestic energy consumption • sense of resource frugality can be diverted to energy saving and household productivity improvement • creating a continuous media dialog with the society on energy/resource saving at domestic level • promoted the innovations in the public sector, induced cross-cutting stakeholders for future linkages, promoted role, professionalism and responsibility of SEA • educated women on how to obtain better energy service through efficient equipment • popularisation of smoke free biomass stoves • importance of saving natural resources for the future generation through reducing, re-using and recycling • promote sustainable consumption of natural resources, etc. These above mentioned benefits are qualitative and intangible. Therefore, the tangible criteria were developed, which could imply on the growth of the programme on quantitative basis. Such criteria are elaborated in the section (b) and (c) below. The criteria were calculated and verified by external stakeholders representing Government organisations and Universities.

Participants that applied for the wrap-up event have seen a gradual growth. When SEA first announced this theme, participation requests were 2,000. The number increased to 3,500 in 2015 and to over 6,000 in 2017. When the competition was inaugurated in 2014, the number of electricity bills submitted for the programme was 1,800. It has increased to 2,300 in 2015 and over 2,500 in 2017. The energy savings achieved by the competition is 378 MWh in 2014, 469 MWh in 2015 and 490 MWh in 2017. Cumulative electricity saving is 1,337 MWh, equivalent to saving USD 158,000. GHG emission reduction calculated through grid emission factors are respectively 262,000, 324,000 and 402,000 CO2 equivalent in 2014, 2015, and 2017. Thus cumulative reduction of GHG emissions by the programme is 988,000 CO2equivalent. SEA was able to operate under 15% financial contribution for the programme all years. It is not possible to quantify the indirect savings achieved in household level through the programme. Also the intangible benefits as mentioned above are plentiful. Apart from the above quantified impacts, a whole lot of benefits to the SEA, energy sector and the country through emphasising the novel concept of an ‘Energy Efficient Kitchen’.

Criteria involved to quantify the impact of the programme include • Growth of the participants that applied for the wrap-up event of the initiative • Number of electricity bills submitted for the competition • Number of electricity units saved due to the initiative and the equivalent monetary value and GHG emission reduction • Amount of secured co-finance by private firms vs. the Government contribution However, more benefits were achieved which are qualitative, rather than being quantitative.

Sirikatha Ladies Newspaper of Wijaya Newspaper Pvt. Ltd, which is the most prominent print media firm of the country collaborated and co-financed the programme. It was designed to maximise benefits for both parties. SEA has limited capacity in mass scale advertising but had an innovative programme, technical know-how and government support. Sirikatha was more competent in advertising, organising and touching the minds of target group. Providing engagement on most competent areas with well-defined roles was much beneficial to reduce the workload of SEA staff. This was much effective than a one way advertising solution. Overall operational cost of the programme was reduced, knowledge was exchanged within the public-media-private-society, and created more impact therein. Each year, programme ended with a mass scale participatory event accommodating 1,300 women, as a wrap-up event. Sirikatha invited Mrs. Shantha Mayadunne, a celebrity chef in Sri Lanka to host the event. SEA and Sirikatha successfully obtained sponsorships from several private sector companies for the wrap-up event and distributed gift packs. Officials of National Youth Centre and National College of Education helped in organising the wrap-up event successfully while Independent Television Network and Lakhanda FM Radio provided electronic media support. In the wrap-up event, Hon. Ministers/Deputy Ministers of Power and Renewable Energy, Womens’ Affairs, Environment, Education, Foreign Affairs, Sustainable Development & Wildlife Conservation, Social Empowerment and Justice graced the wrap-up event with responsible senior administration officials to participate, elevating the status of the programme. Celebrities from cinema, drama and music spheres were also invited for the wrap-up event by Sirikatha to increase the public enthusiasm. Active engagement of distinguished participants was available in all three wrap-up events held to date. Partners for post evaluation of the programme included Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy, University of Moratuwa and National Engineering Research and Development Centre.

Topmost lesson learnt is that real driving force of domestic energy conservation is women. Sense of thriftiness in Asian women makes them ideal energy savers, once provided with learning opportunities. Energy thriftiness would drive them to stabilise family earning/expenditure cycles. Productivity concept, i.e. ‘spending least and gaining most out of it’ was inculcated in women, letting them to save energy, time, effort and money. This theme was a wake up call for the policy makers and society, to recognise the hitherto unseen potential of domestic sector as a key driver of energy conservation in line with the UN SDGs, CoP21 and other such obligations. Secondly, it was understood that stakeholder engagement is effective than providing one way advertising solutions in addressing general public. Each stakeholder should express their clear objectives and concerns while clearly defining their commitments based on their expertise. Thirdly, the transfer of knowledge, expertise and responsibility of the senior officials to junior staff with supervision would make things flow easy and ensure long-term sustainability in public sector initiatives. ‘Energy Efficient Kitchen’ concept would go beyond energy efficiency and cultivate resource frugality in all aspects. This approach would be further improved, if it is spread into regional contexts.