ESB – Net Zero 2040
Method Toolbox
- Ethnographic Immersion, Focus Groups, In-Depth Interviews
Framing the Problem
ESB needed powerful insight to support delivery of its Net Zero by 2040 strategy, built around three pillars: Decarbonised Electricity, Resilient Infrastructures and Empowered Consumers. The challenge was to understand how the Irish public currently thinks and feels about climate change, sustainability, energy and the prospect of an all-electric life – while also exploring perceptions of the ESB brand. It was important to hear both mainstream public opinion and the perspectives of communities living close to energy generation sites or particularly affected by severe weather.
Our Approach
We designed an extensive qualitative programme combining 12 focus groups, 10 in-depth interviews and ethnographic immersion. The focus groups used a carefully designed sample, including a broadly representative mainstream audience with different levels of engagement in climate and sustainability, alongside communities living near energy generation sites and areas affected by storms such as Storm Éowyn. Extended two-hour groups, conducted primarily in person, explored attitudes to climate, sustainability, energy generation and the communication of ESB initiatives. We complemented this with in-depth interviews with local ‘experts’ – including a Tidy Towns representative, a Repair and Share cafe owner, an anti-windfarm campaigner and a local journalist – to uncover wider motivations, local experiences and attitudinal shifts that would be difficult to capture through conventional consumer interviews alone.
The Breakthrough
The research created a layered evidence base for different audiences across ESB. We delivered a topline report bringing together the most important cross-cutting insights, supported by deeper sectional reports on individual topics such as reactions to the communication of ESB initiatives. This gave teams a shared, nuanced understanding of public and local perspectives to support the ongoing delivery and communication of the Net Zero 2040 strategy.
