Xu, Jean;
Smyth, Hedley;
(2025)
Resident wellbeing in home energy retrofit programmes: A realist review on the role of project and programme organising.
In:
Proceedings of the EURAM 2025.
European Academy of Management (EURAM): Florence, Italy.
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Abstract
Human wellbeing is an obligation and driver for sustainable transitions. Yet it remains underexplored in sustainable project management theories and practices. The existing housing stock is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Home energy retrofit programmes offer an opportunity to not only upgrade energy performance but also improve resident wellbeing and address energy poverty and health inequality. Through a realist review, this paper critically examines the role of project and programme organising in delivering wellbeing outcomes in home energy retrofit projects across Europe. It identifies four types of home energy retrofit programmes, energy-led, social-led, business-led and integrated programmes. Each type drives different practices and processes, which influence resident comfort, affordability and psychosocial factors. The findings reveal that most programmes treat wellbeing as an emergent and operational issue, instead of a strategically planned and integrated objective throughout the project life cycle. The study highlights the need to develop programme management capabilities that enable strategic planning for multidimensional sustainable outcomes, foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, enhance capabilities and competences to care for resident wellbeing, and improve communication, engagement and learning to support residents and families in the net-zero transition. The study argues for embedding an ethics of care and the capability approach into programme and project organising, reframing project outcomes beyond technical, economic and environmental factors and emphasising the enhancement of residents’ abilities and opportunities to achieve healthy, meaningful and fulfilling lives.
| Type: | Proceedings paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Resident wellbeing in home energy retrofit programmes: A realist review on the role of project and programme organising |
| Event: | European Academy of Management |
| Location: | Florence |
| Dates: | 22 Jun 2025 - 25 Jun 2025 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://admin.euram.academy/uploads/euram/original... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author-accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | energy efficiency, home, housing, retrofit, resident wellbeing, sustainable project management |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10216377 |
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