A service to reduce electricity consumption

If everyone lived as we do in Sweden, 4.2 Earths would be needed for the planet’s renewable resources to suffice. Energy consumption is an area in which people have huge potential to reduce their environmental impact. For two years, Antrop has collaborated with the startup Greenly to make it easier and more fun to reduce energy consumption at home.

The project included
Sustainable design Digital design Customer-driven organization

UX design for reduced energy consumption

To take steps toward becoming a sustainable planet, we have to reduce our energy consumption. The EU goal is a reduction of 20% by 2020. Knowledge, participation and actions for the climate at the individual level are essential for our success.

In Sweden, the housing and service sector accounts for almost 40% of total energy consumption. Research shows that changing our household energy use could produce a reduction of up to 20%. That fact, combined with ever-declining customer satisfaction with electricity companies, inspired Greenely to take action. The startup has developed a digital service to help households reduce their energy consumption.

The service gathers data on your energy consumption from electricity companies and puts it in visual form. You can see how your energy consumption compares to your neighbor’s, and how it changes over time.

But most electricity companies only give out data once per month. Changing people’s behavior requires more regular feedback. Greenely turned to Antrop for support with UX design and help designing functionality that increases value for their users.

A new function to change behavior

Together with Greenely, Antrop started sketching out a new function in the app: the energy diary. This function would help users reduce their energy consumption by setting energy-saving goals, offering tips on ways to conserve energy, and then predicting the effects of those actions.

A survey was conducted to understand the energy market and how people think about energy in their homes. Antrop developed concept sketches and carried out user tests to understand what worked and what did not. The tests focused on notifications to encourage users to update their energy-saving actions every week. Close collaboration between Antrop and Greenely’s developers meant the solution could be implemented iteratively.

It was incredibly valuable and rewarding for us to get to work with Antrop and benefit from their vast, unique expertise in UX and design processes, especially for a young company like us.
Mohammed Al Abassi, Founder and Key Account Manager

A successful startup

Greenely has now achieved numerous successes and has connected with major corporate customers that offer the service to their customers. They’ve achieved a 6.3% drop in energy use through household behavior changes. The innovation has won awards in multiple competitions and has appeared in both national and international press in recent years (for example, they were included in Forbes 30 Under 30). In total, Greenely has attracted SEK 10 million in venture capital.

In spring 2017, a collaboration was initiated with Stanford to study Greenely’s impact on household energy consumption. The collaboration caught the attention of the Swedish Ministry of the Environment, among others. The service was marketed broadly to hundreds of thousands of Swedish households in 2018.

Greenely is a Swedish company founded during KTH Innovation 2014 and has developed a comprehensive and cohesive energy streamlining system for households. Greenely illustrates energy consumption in a new digital format to make it fun and easy to reduce electricity consumption.

greenely.se