Building Energy Literacy to Drive Behavioural Change: Lessons from the E-Lit Adults Project

Background

Energy poverty affects tens of millions of Europeans across the continent. For many households, the barriers include a lack of knowledge, vocabulary, and confidence needed to understand energy consumption, engage with available support, and make meaningful changes to daily habits. The E-Lit Adults project, funded by Erasmus+, was built on a clear conviction: that building genuine energy literacy is one of the most direct levers available to change behavioural patterns, reduce household energy vulnerability, and bring citizens into the energy transition as active participants. To achieve this across radically different national contexts, the project brought together six partners spanning opposite ends of the European energy poverty spectrum, Kaunas University of Technology and ART+INN (Lithuania), Cultum (Italy), Strateco (Austria), CluBE (Greece) and Balkan Bridge (Bulgaria), combining energy sector expertise, adult education experience, rural community work and sustainability consulting.

Data Collection for a Needs-Based Approach

Before developing any educational content, the consortium surveyed 683 adults across all five partner countries between 2023 and 2024, mapping the relationship between energy knowledge, attitudes and actual behaviour. Using a validated energy literacy scale measuring knowledge, attitude and behaviour, the findings were consistent everywhere: a need for more energy literacy. Respondents broadly understood that energy efficiency mattered and showed moderately positive attitudes toward energy saving, yet knowledge gaps remained significant, particularly around energy conversion, renewable energy sources, energy efficiency practices, and practical saving actions. Only a minor number of participants knew how to translate their intentions into action: how to read an energy bill, identify inefficiencies at home, or access available support. This evidence, layered with a secondary analysis of each country’s policy landscape, gave the consortium a clear purpose: to design tools that would close the gap between knowing and doing, for people who may have limited energy literacy. It also established the baseline against which the project’s impact was to be measured.

Digital Content, Human Delivery

The E-Lit Adults model rests on a deliberate combination: one educator-designed curriculum, delivered through a digital platform, activated by physical facilitation. The curriculum covers six thematic areas, energy sources, efficiency and conservation, tariffs, community energy, energy-efficient lifestyle, and support services, structured across three difficulty levels to allow every learner to enter and progress at their own pace. Content was designed by trained educators, starting from day-to-day behaviours before building toward more complex territory.

The content is hosted on an interactive online platform at elitadults.eu, available in six languages and accessible to users with limited digital experience. But the platform has never been conceived as a standalone resource. The project team learned early on that trust is built between people, not through screens. Thus, physical workshops run by trusted local facilitators opened every module in every country, at every learning cycle. The digital tool extends and sustains what that human encounter initiates: a combination that allows the project to scale while preserving the depth of the learning experience.

Rooted in Communities

The project’s impact has proven to be highest where it was most firmly embedded in existing local structures. In Austria, the course was integrated into the activities of a local energy community, with a physical workshop establishing the trust participants needed before engaging with the digital content. In Italy, in rural towns, facilitators used card games derived from the course modules to engage elder residents, opening conversations that led to the creation of a permanent local think tank bringing together residents, farmers and energy producers, a governance outcome that extended well beyond the original scope of the project. In Lithuania, the curriculum is being integrated into the Green Municipalities Network, embedding energy literacy within a regional structure with existing connections and legitimacy. In Greece, the course was delivered in Western Macedonia, the country’s historic lignite region now facing one of Europe’s most demanding just transitions, where sessions in Kozani engaged energy-vulnerable residents, educators and local professionals alike. There, the training framed energy literacy as a matter of energy justice, connecting household concerns such as district heating, oil-based systems and complex tariffs to the region’s wider shift toward green energy.

Impact and Replicability

The results confirm the model works. The platform at elitadults.eu has attracted nearly 1,000 visits since going live in May 2025, reaching learners well beyond the five partner countries, with visitors recorded from Ireland, Brazil, Australia and other regions worldwide. 125 adult learners participated in facilitated training sessions across the five countries. Self-assessed energy knowledge increased by an average of nearly 2 points on a 5-point scale across all six thematic areas, with the largest gains in community energy understanding and awareness of regional support structures, precisely where the baseline research had identified the deepest gaps. 87.8% of participants expressed readiness to apply their learning in their households and communities, and 91.4% would recommend the training to others.

The strength of E-Lit Adults lies in a combination that is straightforward to replicate: evidence-based content design, educator-led facilitation, and a digital platform that scales what human connection initiates. Training content is openly available, the facilitation methodology is documented, and the research base is adaptable to any national or regional context. E-Lit Adults offers a tested, scalable answer, demonstrating that digital tools, when anchored in strong physical facilitation and community trust, can drive the behavioural change needed to reduce energy poverty across Europe.