Design Challenge and Design Ideas

Irish homes emit 58% more carbon than the EU average due to heavy reliance on fossil fuels and energy-inefficient houses. It’s a complex societal and environmental challenge.
The Bank of Ireland has set a target to reduce financed emissions by 48% by 2030 and has committed to supporting Ireland’s climate action targets.
Since 2019, regulations have dictated new houses must have a building energy rating (BER) of A3, but the challenge is that three quarters of the existing housing stock has a BER rating of C or below.
How might we enable the retrofitting of houses across Ireland?
Retrofitting is a spectrum from installing heat pumps and solar panels, to smaller incremental changes, but success is measured in BER improvements.
It is vital to create a fairer system for homeowners, to grow awareness of retrofitting opportunities and empower them to get the process started.

Sustainable Design

At Bank of Ireland we wanted to shape a new EcoSaver mortgage offering that delivers meaningful impact for homeowners, the country and the environment.
The value proposition provides flexible finance, personalised insights, contractor access, incremental savings, and faster progress towards 100% green energy.
We tested the value proposition in one-to-one interviews and focus groups to refine the product offering. Research identified the need to lower structural barriers including upfront cost, bottlenecks in supply and lack of access to information. It also highlighted the need to shift behaviours from perceiving sustainable mortgages as unattainable. Next, we conducted rapid prototyping to refine and iterate key user interactions.

We wanted our design to address three gaps; informational, financial and behavioural.
To reduce the information gap, we designed a portal modelling the cost, energy savings, BER improvement and payback period for potential retrofit activities, with recommendations for the most cost-effective actions, partnering with Gamma. Other features to share key information include application support where retrofit work qualifies for government grants and recommended 3rd parties to deliver upgrades, such as SSE Airtricity.
To bridge financial gaps, EcoSaver offers discounted lending rates for any retrofit activities. Discounts are based on improvements rather than absolute BER level so everyone can qualify, and benefits are clearly signposted to give certainty to people planning retrofit work. To reduce friction, the financial journey starts in the same portal as the information journey.

Behavioural design is applied to promote continued action. Discounts and rewards are progressive to encourage continued improvements, and clearly signposted at each level. Visualisations within the interface show performance comparisons to national averages to leverage social proof. Benefits are framed as cash savings, personal improvements or environmental impact depending on what is most motivating for the user.
EcoSaver launched in April 2024. Alan Hartley, Director of Homebuying, Bank of Ireland said “Uniquely in the market, EcoSaver gives a range of tiered discounts for all properties with a BER from A to G, a fairer situation for all homeowners. We haven’t seen any other mortgage product across Europe which provides discounts to such a range of properties.”