The timing of energy use is one of the major concerns in striving towards a more sustainable society. How and when energy is used depends on temporal sequences and the synchronisation of activities in organisations.
This project investigates the institutional rhythms of energy demand across different time scales – hour, day, week, month or a year – focusing on schools and hospitals – in order to identify forms of flexibility that might be decisive for the extent and timing of energy demand. We ask what energy is used for in these organisations, and how that relates to the scheduling of activity within these sites and in the wider environment.
To understand these issues, we interview representatives from the selected organisations (such as energy or sustainability managers) and look at a variety of secondary data about energy use, times of activity or organisational structures, especially as they change in time.