SLIME are one-stop shops detecting energy poverty, implementing energy audits but also social diagnostics for identified households and helping the householders by redirecting them towards existing sustainable and adapted solutions to climb out of energy poverty situations. The selected households receive a visit from Slime advisors to conduct a socio-technical audit. They evaluate the household’s needs according to their revenue, the building’s thermal envelope, home appliances, etc. They suggest building retrofits, a change in their energy contracts, link households to entities capable of helping them alleviate their energy poverty. The intervention methodology and budget allocation of the Slime programme is designed nationally by CLER (a non-profit association), and deployed locally by authorities in SLIME schemes (50 to this day).
The implementation of the SLIME methodology by a local authority is co-financed by the ESC scheme. The activities developed include: Designing the scheme by local authorities. Responding to CLER’s call for applications by the local authority. Validating the scheme by CLER, if the methodology presented corresponds to that of SLIME. Launching the scheme and actions. Annual validation by CLER of the local authority's expenditure, the number of visits made and the conformity of the actions. Payment to CLER of the corresponding sums by the funding partners at national level (“the obliged” in the ESCs scheme). Redistribution by CLER to the local authorities of the sums paid.
SLIME is a good example of action on the local level to identify vulnerable households, and to organise the ecosystem of local actors. They guarantee individual monitoring and tailored help on more than one subject to guide people out of energy poverty. Advisers look at the households’ needs and provide an extensive range of responses, from installing small saving devices like low-consumption light bulbs to help in the renovation process of inefficient buildings. Beyond the local point of view, Slime is part of a large, national network allowing collaboration and knowledge sharing between multiple authorities. The existence of the energy certificates funding scheme is also an upside for reducing the necessary budget for local authorities, which directly contributes to launching the scheme locally.
With an annual budget of about 110,000 euros per Slime community, the project has:
- Benefited 52,000 fuel-poor households.
- Saved an average of 170 euros in water and energy costs in annual household bills.
- Carried out the first action for 84% of the beneficiary households.
- Carried out retrofitting works for 46% of the households.
The deployment of Slime depends partly on the availability of relevant locally certified actors. A collective looking to create a Slime needs to ensure that it can count on skilled stakeholders in the area, otherwise, it will need to train a workforce to become advisers.
-
-
Countries impacted:
France -
Geographical scale:
National -
Energy poverty phase:
ImplementationPlanning -
Intervention type:
Household energy efficiency and refurbishment -
Professionals involved:
Civil society employeeSocial worker -
-
Type of funding:
Private funding from energy providers (“the obliged” within the frame of the Energy Savings Certificates Scheme (ESCs) and controlled by the Ministry of Ecological Transition) -
Website:
Case website -
SDGs addressed:
Explore more
