Read more about the winner and runner up of the 2015 Sustainability Action Award for a Staff Team.
Winner of the Outstanding Staff Team award: Joulo Project
Group members: Prof. Alex Rogers, Dr Reuben Wilcock
Joulo began as a university research project in 2012 investigating low-cost ways to provide home heating advice to householders – an area generally poorly understood, despite typically being the largest component of a household’s energy bill. Joulo created a low-cost temperature logger which requires no technical skills, has the data analysed online through machine learning algorithms, and provides the user with instant analysis of how they are using their heating and advice on how to reduce their energy costs.
The initial trial in over 750 homes identified potential savings of over £50,000 and attracted significant interest from industry and government, including Google, IBM, and the Department for Energy and Climate Change. In September 2013, Joulo won the inaugural British Gas Connected Homes Start-up Competition, with Joulo was described as the UK’s brightest home tech start-up.
Trials with three UK energy companies followed in 2014 involving a further 1500 users, and in January this year 1000 devices have been deployed across Highfield campus to enable the University estates team to optimise heating and cooling, reducing both cost and carbon emissions.
Runner-up of the Outstanding Staff Team award: University Social Innovation Lab
Group members: Dr Pathik Pathak, Josie Francis
The Social Innovation Lab provides a hub for social innovation and entrepreneurship at the university, recognising that the university should be a community anchor in Southampton. Through a range of curricular and extra-curricular initiatives and events, the lab offers staff and students the opportunity to learn about, and experiment with, the concepts of social innovation and entrepreneurship in relation to real social issues, in particular through:
- The Social Innovation Challenge, brought together students and local community and third sector organisations to discuss isolation in old age and develop innovative projects to address this. From this hugely popular event, two fledgling social innovations have been developed and are being support
- The popular Social Enterprise Module, which is open to all undergraduates and focuses on the importance of community engagement and co-production as tools for sustainability. Three student-led social enterprise projects have emerged from the module.
Due to its successes, the Lab has secured 4 international partnerships, including being awarded a consultancy by British Council Vietnam to work on their new social enterprise in higher education programme for universities across Vietnam.