The document discusses Germany's energy transition (Energiewende) toward more sustainable energy sources. It notes that events like Fukushima accelerated Germany's shift toward renewables. A survey and Google Trends analysis were conducted to understand how communication about sustainability issues in Germany has impacted societal views over time. Key findings include that Fukushima significantly influenced the Energiewende, and that effective communication requires understanding audiences and using diverse channels to drive widespread understanding of needed changes.
2. 2
Table of Content
TABLE OF CONTENT 2
TABLE OF FIGURES 3
ABSTRACT 4
1 INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY 5
2 ENERGIEWENDE AS A MAINSTAY OF A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY 7
2.1 SITUATION AND GOALS OF THE ENERGIEWENDE 7
2.2 THE PRIVATE PERSON AS THE MAIN STAKEHOLDER OF THE ENERGIEWENDE 8
2.3 THE COMMUNICATION OF THE ENERGIEWENDE 9
3 PROCESS OF INVESTIGATION 10
3.1 SURVEY 10
3.1.1 SELECTION OF THE PARTICIPANTS 10
3.1.2 STRUCTURE AND QUESTIONS 11
3.2 GOOGLE TRENDS 12
3.2.1 FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLE OF THE TOOL 12
3.2.2 UTILITY AS A SOURCE 12
4 RESULT OF INVESTIGATION 13
4.1 ANALYSIS OF THE ORGANISATIONS THAT PARTICIPATED IN THE SURVEY 13
4.2 SURVEY 13
4.2.1 TOPICS AND AMBITION 13
4.2.2 DEMOGRAPHICS 16
4.2.3 COMMUNICATION TOOLS AND EVALUATION 19
4.2.4 POSITIONING IN THE AIDA-MODEL 22
4.3 GOOGLE TRENDS: 23
4.3.1 ENERGIEWENDE (GE. VERBATIM ENERGY TRANSITION) 23
4.3.2 ERNEUERBARE ENERGIEN (GE. RENEWABLE ENERGIES) 25
4.3.3 PHOTOVOLTAIK 26
4.3.4 VEGAN 27
4.3.5 ELEKTROAUTO (GE. ELECTRIC CAR) 29
4.3.6 OVERVIEW 30
4.3.7 COMPARISON WITH THE NETHERLANDS 31
5 CONCLUSION 33
6 LIST OF REFERENCES 34
3. 3
Table of Figures
Fig. 1: Final energy consumption in 2004 of each sector. ___________________________________ 8
Fig. 2: Segmentation of the survey participants. _________________________________________ 13
Fig. 3: Order of key topics for the communication based on selection of survey participants. ______ 13
Fig. 4: Order of key target groups based on selection of survey participants. __________________ 17
Fig. 5: Correlation of the rate of selection and the size of the milieus. ________________________ 19
Fig. 6 Order of usage rate for the communication tools of the survey participants. _____________ 19
Fig. 7 Correlation of the rate of selection to the evaluation of the tools. ______________________ 20
Fig. 8 Placement of the communication tools in the AIDA-model according
to survey participants. ________________________________________________________ 22
Fig. 9: SVI of Google Trends for “Energiewende“ in Germany. ______________________________ 23
Fig. 10: SVI of Google Trends for “Erneuerbare Energien“ in Germany. _______________________ 25
Fig. 11: SVI of Google Trends for „Photovoltaik“and new installed photovoltaic
capacity per year in Germany. ________________________________________________ 26
Fig. 12: SVI of Google Trends for “Vegan” in Germany. ____________________________________ 27
Fig. 13: SVI of Google Trends for “Elektroauto” and new registrations of electric cars
per year in Germany. ________________________________________________________ 29
Fig. 14: SVIs of Google Trends for the previous terms combined in Germany. __________________ 30
Fig. 15: SVIs of Google Trends for the translated terms in the Netherlands. ___________________ 31
4. 4
Abstract
This report has been written during an internship at Quintel Intelligence based in
Amsterdam and has to goal to give a deeper insight into the status quo of the
communication process of the energy transition and sustainability in Germany, namely the
Energiewende. The focus has been set on the understanding of the communication methods
addressed to the citizens and their response to these stimuli. Therefore a survey has been
sent out to a variety of shareholders to grasp the strategies of the initiators of the dialogue
and analyzing graphs of Google Trends gave an insight on how the behavior and mindset of
the citizens changed since 2004.
One major result of this investigation is that Fukushima definitely made its contribution to
the society’s change towards a sustainable future. The catastrophe definitely influenced the
process of the Energiewende. Although the German citizens themselves did not experience
any direct harm because of the far distance to the accident scene, the strong impact on the
national mentality is undeniable. The resulting question now is, why does a society only
recognize the necessity of action to it’s fullest after it witnessed a disaster that can be seen
as a possible outcome of negation of the problem? After that it is the government’s and the
involved organizations’ job to mobilize the necessary resources to prevent other disasters
and to clearly deny this question before the only opportunity left is damage limitation.
As this is then a guided process of a shift for the whole society, the communication still
needs constant adaptation of the strategies and has to involve every aspect of sustainability
because the Energiewende is less of a project than more of a change in every person’s
mindset. In the case of this report, the German economy has to accept and furthermore
considerably support and fund trends. The current attitude of hesitation towards the trend
of electro mobility might be understandable because of their special history of the national
economy, but will turn into a drawback for the country sooner or later.
Another important insight of this report is the way the communication tools are currently
used. A question about the application strategy of the tools shows that the key to success is
definitely an appropriate mix of communication tools to enable a broad penetration of the
society. Additionally, the survey participants are in agreement about the growing
importance of Social Media and will or already have implemented it as a new channel. It also
seems to slowly supersede the long known tool of advertisement on TV, radio and print and
emphasizes the importance of interaction and discussion in today’s communication.
Finally a comparison with the Netherlands interestingly shows, that no country’s society
reacts the same to different influences, even if they share borders. Therefore there is no all-
round solution on how to guide a society towards sustainability. The only key to success is to
fully understand the attitude and mindset of the citizens and based on that knowledge to
initiate a progressive and comprehensive dialogue through the right balance of different
communication channels to enable the necessary penetration of the society to successfully
introduce a social shift and guide the nation towards a new sustainable era.
5. 5
1 Introduction to Sustainability
Since almost 50 years, environmentalism has constantly been a topic of discussion over time.
1970 is said to be the beginning of this movement in the European Union as it was named
“European Nature Conservation Year”1
2
and therefore induced many people to found
different organizations and associations to provide information to the public about the
responsibility to protect the environment. Especially international topics such as global
warming and its consequences gained a lot of awareness until today. Certain events such as
the catastrophe of Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico or the nuclear disaster of
Fukushima in Japan but also the constant rise of temperatures and sea levels made the
governments realize that they have to discuss and analyze possible scenarios and pool their
resources to limit the negative consequences of the human impact on the environment. One
example is that by today, 165 countries signed themselves into the “United Nations
Convention on Climate Change” (UNCCC), which was adopted on the 9th
of May in 1992 in
New York, and frequently hold conferences called “Conference of the Parties” (COP) to
discuss further steps on climate protection3
. The best-known result of these international
meetings is the Kyoto-Protocol from 19974
, which is now followed by the Paris Agreement
from 2015 with the goal to keep the rise of the temperature in this century well below 2
degrees5
. Although this agreement after years of negotiations can be seen as a historical
breakthrough, the more difficult task will now be to figure out the local possibilities of
implementation in the different countries to actually stay on schedule and meet the
conditions.
But also bottom up the pressure on governments got stronger, as for example in Germany,
which has been one of the economically leading countries in the world for the last decades.
Back in the 70s, people started to reflect about their own behavior and principles of their
consummation-oriented way of living and realized the negative impact of the human being
on nature and its valuable resources. The deforestation of enormous areas, the feeding of a
growing worldwide population and the steady rise of the global temperature were no longer
unproven theories or worries of over concerned environmentalists but made their way into
the international media and also owe their media penetration to the strong
intercommunication on the Internet. But especially local issues citizens are confronted with
on a daily basis, such as nuclear power plants, the emissions of coal power plants or forest
dieback in their local areas, sensitized the society over time and as a result, the evolving
discontent forced the politicians’ hand in many cases. For example after several protests and
yearlong debates about the risks of nuclear power and it’s highly radioactive byproducts, the
German government and the involved energy suppliers finally made an agreement on the
14th
of June in 2000 on phasing out of nuclear power step-by-step, to preserve the affected
1
Bölsche (1999)
2
Aeberhard (1996) S. 65
3
UNFCC [03.04.2016]
4
United Nations (1998)
5
United Nations (2015)
6. 6
jobs and at the same time to replace nuclear capacities through environmental friendly
alternatives6
. Although renewable energies were already part of the German energy mix, at
this time their share was relatively small because of the high costs of these new technologies
and the lack of funding programs and experience. It took another eleven years until the next
major breakthrough towards sustainability in Germany. Unfortunately it was the already
mentioned catastrophe of Fukushima that made the federal government overthink the
current strategies. As shown and discussed later in chapter 4.3.1, this event can be seen as
the beginning of a new trend called Energiewende. Although the term already existed
before, it was then introduced to the open public and used to name national goals to
establish a sustainable society and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. The basic principles
for this vision can be broken down into the following three aspects.
• Rearrangement of energy generation towards renewable energies
• Decentralization to reduce loses in transportation
• Extensive improvement of efficiency in energy consummation
Also the mobility started to undergo a shift towards electric drivetrains and the concept of
car sharing. The former has two advantages compared to combustion engines. First, these
new drivetrains have a significantly higher energy efficiency rate and as they get connected
to the electricity grid for recharging the battery, the vehicle can be powered by renewable
energy if provided. Consequently it doesn’t emit any CO2 or other pollutants into the air.
Besides that, a strong trend towards sustainable ways of nutrition, such as vegan, local and
organic food, can be noticed in the German society. This will be discussed in detail later on in
chapter 4.3 through analyzing and comparing year by year the number of search requests for
each of these terms on the search engine of Google.
The following chapter 2 explains the goals and the strategy of the Energiewende for a
sustainable society in Germany and shows why active participation of the citizens is crucial
for realizing this vision. Furthermore it is shown, how the government and the society are
connected through communication.
6
The Federal Government of Germany (14.06.2000)
7. 7
2 Energiewende as a mainstay of a sustainable society
2.1 Situation and goals of the Energiewende
As explained in chapter 1, Germany currently undergoes a major shift towards a sustainable
society and economy, which has been named Energiewende for a better definition and
understanding of the public and therefore to simplify the process of communication. Since
2002, the renewable energy share (RES) for example, has increased steadily with no sign of
reaching the climax. Based on the latest information for Germany in 2015, the RES of the
electricity mix is now 30.1% with a production of 195.9 billion kWh7
. It is one of the goals of
the Energiewende to put Germany in the position of a role model for other countries by
reaching the following key goals (if no further notice, until 2050)8
:
• Opting out of the nuclear energy program until the end of 2022
• Increase of the RES of the gross electricity consumption to 80 per cent
• Increase of the RES of the gross energy consumption to 60 per cent
• Decrease of the greenhouse gas emissions by between 80 to 95 per cent (based on
the amount of emissions in 1990)
• Decrease of the primary energy consumption by 50 per cent
• Decrease of the electricity consumption by 25 per cent (based on the consumption in
2008)
These key goals for the year 2050 the government is striving for are additionally divided into
individual stages for the end of each decade to enable their step-by-step implementation.
The thereby created scenario of energy supply and emissions can be seen as the foundation
and basis for the strategies of this long-term process towards sustainability. The focus of the
Energiewende has till now clearly been laid on the energy sector, which already experienced
significant changes the past couple of years. In 2014, the Federal Ministry for Economic
Affairs and Energy (BMWi) therefore developed the “10-Point-Energy-Agenda” and adapted
it since then just slightly to the current valid status as laid out below9
:
1. Renewables, Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG)
2. European Climate and Energy Framework 2030
3. Electricity market design
4. Regional cooperation in the EU/internal market
5. Transmission grids
6. Distribution grids
7. Efficiency strategy
8. Buildings strategy
9. Gas supply strategy
10. Monitoring the energy transition/energy transition platforms
7
Agentur für erneuerbare Energien [04.04.2016]
8
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany (28.09.2016)
9
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany [06.04.2016]
8. 8
With the agenda, the government tries to stir the Energiewende through laws, regulations
and funding programs towards a new direction in electricity, heat energy and mobility10
.
Besides that, also the support of and dialog with all the other stakeholders, such as the
critical industry segments, non-governmental organizations, associations, regional ministries
and the citizens themselves, is seen as a fundamental responsibility of the federal
government. What makes the Energiewende a unique task and possibly the beginning of a
new era for society and economy is the fact that it initialized the rethinking of every person’s
own behavior, principles and values. It is not only bound to the way of generating and the
use of energy for example, but substantially affects many aspects of the daily life. The
following chapter now explains this allegation in detail and tells why in fact the private
person can be seen as the main stakeholder of the Energiewende.
2.2 The private person as the main stakeholder of the Energiewende
As already mentioned in the last chapter, the Energiewende affects not only certain
mechanisms in the economy or a part of the country but moreover stands for a fundamental
economical and also socio-cultural shift. People will not only have to adjust their consumer
behavior but to fundamentally change their mindset about their daily way of living.
Managing and coordinating the Energiewende, which is a process of several decades,
requires thought-out communication and guidance without creating the impression of
dictation. The citizens not only have to accept the necessity of climate protection through
the reduction of emissions but actually develop the desire to take action themselves.
Fig. 1: Final energy consumption in 2004 of each sector.
11
The figure shows the division of the nationwide final energy consumption into the four
major sectors. With this statistic, it is clear to see why private persons can be seen as the
most important protagonists in the Energiewende. First of all, a large share of the
transportation12
is directly caused by individual citizens and can be actively influenced by
10
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany [07.04.2016]
11
Umweltbundesamt Germany (15.04.2016)
12
Umweltbundesamt Germany (05.10.2015)
697 TWh
29%
615 TWh
26%
361 TWh
15%
730 TWh
30% Industry
Residential
Commercial
Transportation
9. 9
them. The number of hybrid or electric cars on the streets is highly dependent on the private
passenger traffic and therefore on the car purchasing behavior based on information
available for new technologies. But also an increasing the use of public transport and new
concepts such as car sharing have to be a major goal. Secondly the residential sector, where
energy is used for heating and electricity, offers great opportunities as well. The great
energy saving potential in insulation and heating systems explains why efficiency and
buildings are listed as preference topics on the 10-point-energy-agenda, mentioned in the
previous chapter. There are other forms of investments as well, which offer possibilities for
citizens to take part in the Energiewende. For example the government successfully
introduced photovoltaic and solar panels to the open public (see chapter 4.3.3) as a way to
produce your own energy on the roof and constantly supported this process through funding
programs and laws such as the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). Furthermore the
process affects even more aspects of the daily life, such as consumer behavior, nutrition,
and the willing to save energy. In conclusion this means, that the society can’t be left out but
is actually the main actor and absolutely essential to create a sustainable future.
2.3 The communication of the Energiewende
As explained above, the German citizens are the most important stakeholder of the
Energiewende and are consequently essential for this successful and permanent change
towards a sustainable society. The process requires not only the shut-down of nuclear and
coal power plants but also decentralization of energy production and balancing. Therefore
the motivation of the public to play an active role in this fundamental shift is critical. The
topics affect the citizens on many occasions in their daily life and it is the task of the
government and the involved organizations to create a broad persuasion of necessity and
motivation or even desire for the Energiewende within the German population. This can be
done by communicating a sustainable society and lifestyle as something desirable, rather
than a burden that everybody has to accept as a prerequisite for survival of mankind.
Convincing people of a new way of living a complex process full of risks and not a matter of
years but of decades. The following report will look at the current patterns and strategies of
communication with the citizens, regarding the topics and goals of the Energiewende, but
also how the public assimilates the information provided and puts it into practice.
10. 10
3 Process of Investigation
3.1 Survey
The required data for the report was collected through a survey, a common way to reach a
lot of potential participants. The tool used for this particular case was Google Forms (ge.:
Google Formulare), which has been chosen based on different advantages discussed in the
following paragraph.
The first impression, which is the first page of the website of the survey reached through a
link, is very important and should not let the participant question, whether this is a complex
and time-consuming questionnaire or not. Therefore it is important the layout is minimalistic
and appealing at the same time. Also the recognition value of the brand Google as the
provider of the service lowers the risk of the participant not finishing the survey. Additionally
all questions are optional and therefore don’t necessarily have to be answered. If the
participant doesn’t want to reveal confidential information or wants to reduce the time
effort, he or she has the option to skip an unidentified number of questions instead of
discontinuing the survey as a whole.
To gather detailed and substantial information on the direct interaction with citizens, it
seemed to be most efficient to select a certain area. In order to receive insightful
information, the region should show indication for wealth and economical strength and
should have a rather high population. Research for all states in Germany brought up the
following information and lead to a decision. Currently, roughly 12.700 inhabitants are living
in Bavaria and only North Rhine-Westphalia has more citizens with a number of about
17.600 in total13
. Additionally the gross domestic product per capita is about 43.000€ and
therefore has a higher value only in Bremen and Hamburg14
. Combined with the fact that the
citizens of Bavaria have the highest net income15
and the state has by far the most installed
photovoltaic capacity16
, Bavaria and the city Munich seemed to be the best choice to be
taken as the target areas for the case study. As the state covers a rather large region, the
search for survey participants has been limited to the metropolitan area Munich.
3.1.1 Selection of the participants
In the process of selecting and contacting the participants, the main goal was to reach out to
a fair variety of all parties involved in the topic to get an impression of all different
viewpoints. The contacted participants can basically be pooled to the groups down below.
An analysis on the response rate can be found in chapter 4.1 later on.
• Non-governmental Organizations
• Governmental Organizations
• Energy Provider
• Banks
• Institutions/Associations
• Alternative Providers/Retail
13
statistica (2016a)
14
statistica (2016b)
15
statistica (2016c)
16
statistica (2016d)
11. 11
3.1.2 Structure and questions
As already mentioned, it is important to keep the effort needed to fill out the survey on a
lower level. Therefore, the amount of questions has been narrowed down to twelve in total,
covering the following topics:
• Topics of Communication
• Target Groups
• Communication Tools
• Corporate Structure
• Financial Resources
Unfortunately not all of the participants filled out all questions. Consequently the sections
about the corporate structure and financial resources have been left out of the report
completely, as the few answers would not have been meaningful and representative for
such a broad topic as sustainability of a whole country.
To get a better insight on the use of communication tools, one question let the participants
place their tools in the AIDA model. This model is often used to better understand or plan
marketing strategies by dividing the process of promotion into the following four phases,
based on the single letters:
• Attention (creating awareness amongst potential customers)
• Interest (drawing interest for the content that is being promoted)
• Desire (creating the mindset of need)
• Action (offering customers opportunities to take action)
Furthermore, to enquire and identify the target groups, the survey participants had to assign
their communication to different milieus. In the case of this report, the audience typology of
the SINUS Markt- und Sozialforschung GmbH was used, as it goes well with national
communication concepts and the distinguishing criteria are not too specific. A detailed
description of the milieus, which has also been added to the question of the survey, can be
found on the homepage of the institute through the following link:
http://www.sinus-institut.de/sinus-loesungen/sinus-milieus-deutschland
12. 12
3.2 Google Trends
Google Trends is a tool based on the search engine of Google and shows the popularity of
different terms and words over time. It has been chosen as a source for this report to
visualize trends in the society and the reaction to either communication tools, as asked for in
the survey, or certain events, such as new laws or scandals. The next two chapters explain
the functionality of the tool and the utility as a source.
3.2.1 Functional principle of the tool
Google Trends can be an extremely useful source to gather information about shifts in
interests of a society, as Google is by far the most popular search engine on the Internet in
Germany, with a market share of almost 95 per cent in 201517
. Nonetheless, the functional
principle does have limitations, which can complicate the usage as a source.
• Google Trends does not reveal the absolute amount of search queries for a specific
term, but displays the graph on the timeline based on the so-called Search Volume
Index (SVI). The SVI however represents the development of search requests
proportional to the greatest volume in the defined period of time, which is marked
with the highest value of 100.
• The development of search queries for a term can either be shown for a specific
country or for the entire world. Therefore, the direct comparison of two countries is
not possible, especially regarding the different magnitudes of search volumes for the
same term.
• It is possible to compare the graphs of different search terms to each other, but the
amount is limited to a maximum of five terms. Besides that, as the tool displays the
development of search requests through the SVI, the single graphs can have a far
different figure, as every value is defined by the highest value of all graphs.
3.2.2 Utility as a source
Generally speaking, the data of Google’s search engine is probably the best and most
reliable source for development of search behavior, because of the high market share and
popularity worldwide and especially in western regions such as America or Europe. But using
the edited data of Google Trends as a source should be done with care. The graph only
shows the volume over time but provides no explanatory information whatsoever. Any
drawn conclusion based on it is therefore only supported by assumptions and speculations
and is without a warrant for accuracy of the statements given. Comparing the graphs of two
countries to visualize the delay in time of a trend should also be done carefully. It is
important to consider the differences in definition of terms, as every society has it’s own
understanding and unique way to approach a topic.
17
statistica (2016e)
13. 13
4 Result of Investigation
4.1 Analysis of the organizations that participated in the survey
In the process of the survey, the questionnaire has been sent out to roughly 85 contacts
from different organizations and associations. 20 answers were handed in, which reveals a
response rate of about 24 percent. The following figure shows the segmentation of the
participants based on chapter 3.1.1.
Fig. 2: Segmentation of the survey participants.
4.2 Survey
As discussed in chapter 4.1, the information asked for included some more or less
confidential data of a company or organization. Because participants, as a consequence, left
some answer boxes blank, the sent back questionnaires in a few aspects did not provide
enough content for a serious analysis of some topics. The following chapters therefore focus
on providing evaluations and interpretations based on the useful information received.
4.2.1 Topics and Ambition
Fig. 3: Order of key topics for the communication based on selection of survey participants.
30%
15%
15%
10%
25%
5%
NGOs
Governmental Organizations
Energy Provider
Banks
Institutions/Associations
Alternative Providers/Retail
75.0%
65.0%
60.0%
55.0%
50.0%
50.0%
40.0%
35.0%
Renewable Energy
Energiewende (In General)
Energy Saving
Sustainable Living & Consuming
Mobility
Decentralised Generation
Others
Nutrition
14. 14
The chart above shows the percentage distribution of the answers about the key topic(s) the
different organizations want to communicate. Because this question was multiple-choice,
there are several topics, which scored more than 50 per cent.
Renewable Energy and Energiewende
The overall distribution of the answers shows a really clear picture of the current situation
with the focus of communication being on the renewable energies. As mentioned in chapter
2.1 the energy transition has already started a couple of years ago and is still an on-going
process. Especially wind energy, as the biggest renewable share of the German energy mix,
the expansion of the energy net and energy from solar panels attract a lot of attention at the
moment. The construction of new grid sections to handle the volatility of the additional
capacity can encounter resistance amongst local people in the affected areas. This demands
clear informing and enlightenment through information events and discussion platforms.
Approaching and explaining these important topics upfront raises the acceptance and
prevents delays of projects due to complaints of residents. With the focus of communication
lying on renewable energy, the citizens are made acquaint with the facts about the
important topics of the Energiewende to enable a productive national dialogue.
Sustainable Living & Consuming:
„Sustainable Living & Consuming“ scored with 55 percent the third highest score in the
questionnaire. The communication in this case is focused on the importance of a sustainable
lifestyle and often crosses over with other topics, such as mobility and energy saving. But
also the reduction of waste and plastic packaging and the problems of a consumer society
are of interest. Citizens can relate to this comprehensive content more easily, because of the
amount of correlations and the frequency of confrontations with aspects in a daily life. This
simplifies the process of communication and explanation for both parties and is therefore of
higher importance, compared to the following topics, for the shift towards a sustainable
society.
Energy saving:
The topic of energy saving can be seen as a part of „Sustainable Living & Consuming“, which
is one of the reasons why it scored almost the same percentage with 60 percent. It is more
specific by concentrating on the use of devices for space heating, cooking, washing, lighting
and entertainment in a household. The goal is to create awareness of the consequences of
actual personal usage behavior and the potential for efficiency. Point of motivation used in
many cases is to provide information on the amount of money that can be saved through
changing daily habits. Likewise “Sustainable Living & Consuming”, the citizens are confronted
with the opportunities for energy saving multiple times a day, which simplifies the effort to
motivate them to take action.
Decentralization:
Decentralized energy generation with 50 percent is the answer with the second lowest score
but at the same time one of the key elements of the current stage in the Energiewende. The
lack of communication can be explained by the following reasons. The topic itself is relatively
complex to understand for the public, especially when it comes down to the explanation of
15. 15
different advantages and technical challenges. Additionally this technology offers almost no
possibility for a private person to interact with or profit from as the implementation mainly
takes place in the distribution grids, which don’t belong to private persons. Only the
investment into photovoltaic or solar panels, either through private installations or financial
civic participation associations, is the only possibility for citizens to come in contact with it.
And still, the installation of photovoltaic as support for the decentralization might not be
seen as what it is, but is rather seen as an easy opportunity to produce renewable energy for
private consumption. Additionally also the chosen region is probably a reason for the low
score of decentralization. Compared to rural areas, large cities like Munich have a higher
density of population. The majority of people own or live in an apartment with the building
and it’s infrastructure belonging to a landlord or landlady. As a result it is out of a private
person’s hands to install photovoltaic panels on the roof. Consequently it is reasonable why
the communication is focused on the remaining topics.
Mobility
Interestingly, another result of this question of the survey is that mobility has a relatively low
score despite the massive potential for contribution to sustainability and therefore the
reduction of greenhouse gases. The reason is deeply connected to the country’s history and
economy. The automotive industry is and has been a major part of Germany’s economy
since the beginning of this technology, leading to world-market leaders such as
Volkswagen/Audi, Daimler or BMW. Every seventh place of employment in Germany is
somehow connected to the automotive industry18
, which makes it by far the most important
industrial sector of the German economy. Additionally it also places the country on leading
positions on the international market as more than 75% of all produced cars are exported to
many destinations on every continent 19
which is also the reason why Germany is
internationally known as an export power. The brands are well known worldwide and are
therefore part of the Germans’ pride and international image, based on many years of
successful development and innovation owed to an invaluable art of engineering and
expertise.
Because of that it seems more than reasonable that this sector and the German government
didn’t much react but showed hesitation, as this trend drifts towards a new mindset in
mobility where several decade’s of experience and expertise in the fields of combustion
engines and power trains would be obsolete and no longer of value. For example in 2008,
the European Union passed an act, which says that the average carbon emission of a
manufacturer’s vehicle fleet has to be below 130 grams per kilometer until the year of 2015.
Of course the German car industry and its organizations heavily criticized this decision,
especially because their cars’ unique selling point is a powerful performance on the streets.
People want to own a Porsche because of its acceleration and top-speed to enjoy it on the
German highways, even though it comes with a high mileage and greater amount of
emission of greenhouse gases. During another more recent debate about emission goals for
18
The Federal Government of Germany [12.04.2016]
19
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany [12.04.2016]
16. 16
2020, even the German government tried to support the industry by easing the terms to
fulfill the goal. An initiative, which was criticized as favoring national advantage over climate
protection goals. It shows that also the government is concerned about the current
development on the international automotive market and goes hand in hand with the
industry.2021
Nevertheless, hesitantly the German government started its course towards alternative
powertrains in 2011 when they announced that by the year 2020, one million electric cars
should be driving on the national streets. Despite that, interested people still had to wait
until now for financial support, as the government released its funding program recently this
year on the 27th
of April. It is limited to 1.2 million Euros and will subsidize between 300.000
and 400.000 cars22
. This seems to be like a drop in the ocean and once more confirms the
industry’s hesitance to accept the demand for action. But it is important to look forward and
be part of the future development rather than loosing the connection to the competition on
the market and missing out on securing current and creating new important jobs in this field.
This of course also includes other new trends such as car sharing. In 2014, 1.5 per cent of the
people who are in the position to own a driver’s license are using this booming service and
also the numbers of providers and available cars are constantly rising23
. Such a trend should
now be supported to develop it’s full potential.
Nutrition:
The vegetarian and recently the vegan diet experienced an extensive boom and an increase
in popularity throughout Germany. According to the newest statistics available, almost ten
per cent of all German citizens excluded meat from their meals in 2014 with Germany being
the country with the third highest percentage share of vegetarians worldwide24
. By today,
many supermarket chains have included many new products suitable for this diet and
therefore now offer a broadly reachable alternative to organic supermarkets. But also the
food service industry experienced a strong increase in the number of strictly vegan
restaurants during the last years25
. As explained and shown in chapter 4.3.4 later on, this
development goes hand in hand with an enormous rise of interest since 2011. The rising
numbers of supermarkets and restaurants with vegan and vegetarian products might be the
reaction of the industry to a demand of the society and explains why, according to the result
of the survey, the educational work for nutrition is of a lower importance right now.
4.2.2 Demographics
Asking for the target group was one major aspect of this study. It gives an insight on the
nationwide strategy and stage of implementation but also reveals the approach of the
20
Spiegel Online (24.06.2013)
21
Spiegel Online (24.04.2013)
22
The Federal Government of Germany (27.04.2016)
23
Bundesverband CarSharing (16.03.2015)
24
statistica (2016f)
25
statistica (2016g)
17. 17
individual stakeholder. The graph below shows the rate with which each population segment
has been selected as the target group of the different survey participants combined.
Fig. 4: Order of key target groups based on selection of survey participants.
What really draws the attention in this result is clearly the high-score of the Liberal-
Intellectual Milieu and the New Middle Class, as more than half of all participants selected
them as one of their key demographics. Especially comparing this result to the individual
shares of these Milieus of the German population (see fig. 3) allows us to understand the
current strategy and shows that the stakeholders don’t just try to simply reach the social
groups with the highest share of the population.
Although the Liberal-Intellectual Milieu has a relatively low share of the German population,
it is a high priority target group. The simple reason is the liberal and post-materialistic
ideology of these citizens, which can best be described as a questioning worldview, post-
materialistic and cosmopolitical. Sustainability is therefore one of the essential topics of
interest for its members. As a result it is relatively easy to address and convince those
people, putting them at the same in the position of role models for other slower-reacting
milieus. In addition, members of the Liberal-Intellectual Milieu have a financial capability
above average; a prerequisite to explore and adopt certain trends and development,
without taking serious financial risks.
The Social-Ecological Milieu is similar to the Liberal-Intellectual Milieu but has more
enthusiastic aspects. These people appreciate an ecological and social environment and
therefore tend to act more consequently and quicker when it comes to criticism of the
consumer society and globalization. Sustainability is broadly integrated into their daily life on
different occasions such as food, transportation, consummation and living in general which
suggests the assumption that the majority of this milieu might actively or passively support
the political environmental party “Bündnis 90/Die Grünen”. They are often eager to start or
support further actions regarding sustainability and also help to make initiatives and trends
socially acceptable and therefore attractive to other Milieus. Despite their share of the
German population being the third lowest, their positioning at the beginning of social shifts
makes them, as the result of the survey confirms, still an important demographic in the
61.1%
55.6%
55.6%
44.4%
38.9%
38.9%
38.9%
33.3%
33.3%
33.3%
22.2%
11.1%
Liberal-Intellectual
New Middle Class
Social-Ecological
Adaptive Pragmatic
Traditional
Children & Youth
Others
Established Conservative
High Achiever
Movers and Shakers
Precarious
Escapist
18. 18
process of the Energiewende today. An indication, that the change towards a sustainable
society still just pasted its early phase in many areas. There is a still ongoing stream of new
initiatives and innovations being developed which have to be introduced to and integrated
into the society with the help of the people of this milieu.
However the fact that the New Middle Class represents one of the highest priority
audiences as well, suggests that the process of the Energiewende already enters an
advanced stage, where the goal for the communication becomes to reach as many people as
possible, rather than attracting a milieu, which is the easiest to approach and is willing to
take the role of a trend setter for the other milieus. Especially aspects like renewable
energies are nowadays generally accepted in the society. Compared to the Escapists, who
will be discussed later on, the milieu of the middle class strives for occupational and social
acceptance and is willing to implement new trends, as long as they have been approved and
tested by another broad enough group of people to reduce any risks. The adoption by this
milieu can represent the crucial test for the ability to create a nation-wide trend, where
Energiewende and sustainability become part of the daily.
The part of the population with the highest share in the German population although are the
Escapists, which are apparently at the same time the least attractive demographic for the
different stakeholders of the Energiewende. This doesn’t seem to be conclusive at the first
sight, but the characteristics of the milieu give a solid reason. These people have a self-
centered way of life, which is focused on their here and now, and a very spontaneous
behavior of consummation. Their interest clearly is on the short-term personal benefit and
wellbeing, with society and environment being of secondary importance – a mindset that
gives them no reason to accept social responsibility. These facts make this audience rather
hard to convince of topics of sustainability, which rarely show an instantaneous advantage
for the specific individual, but more a positive effect on a longer timeframe and on the
environment as well.
19. 19
Fig. 5: Correlation of the rate of selection and the size of the milieus.
26
In conclusion, the result of the survey regarding this question shows that the importance of
demographics isn’t only defined by the size of each milieu. The communication strategy of
the Energiewende rather tries to address people first, who are more receptive for the idea of
sustainability and therefore easier to convince with less effort. Only then, the more
persistent groups, such as the escapists, are targeted. Especially already being passively
confronted by a topic, for example through word-by-mouth, raises the level of curiosity and
the willing to discuss. With progress of the Energiewende, a change of the positions in figure
7 will occur. The rank of importance will either decline from high to low or vice versa.
4.2.3 Communication tools and evaluation
Fig. 6 Order of usage rate for the communication tools of the survey participants.
26
Sinus Institut [15.04.2016]
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Rateofselection
Quantity of citizens (in million)
Liberal-Intellectual (1) New Middle Class (2) Social-Ecological (3)
Adaptive Pragmatic (4) Traditional (5) Established Conservative (6)
High Achiever (7) Movers and Shakers (8) Precarious (9)
Escapist (10)
85.0%
80.0%
75.0%
65.0%
55.0%
30.0%
20.0%
20.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
Newsletter or own Print Media
Information Events
Articles in Press (incl. digital)
Social Media
Public Events
Advertisement in Print and Media
Direct Mail Services (Fliers)
Customer Center
Callcenter
Door-to-Door Campaings
Product Stalls in Retail
1 2
3
4 5
6
7 8
9
10
20. 20
The result for the usage rate of the different communication tools shows a focus on the first
five options but no considerable anomaly throughout the figure. The only tool that has not
been selected by any survey participant is product stalls in the retail market. Own print
medias or newsletters reached the highest score as it is used by 84 per cent of all
participants. One specific result that stands out is the score of advertisement with only 30
per cent. Although advertisement can provide a very high level of media penetration, for
example through broadcasting on national television, it is not the tool used the most for
communication. Also remarkable is that social media is used by around two-thirds as the
way of choice to interact with the citizens, although this way of communication is relatively
new and can be quite time-consuming. The following figure now includes the respective
valuations, followed by a paragraph with comments of the participants about their choice
and different approaches for explanation and interpretation. The grading system used let
the participants choose on a scale from 1 (being the worst) till 5 (being the best).
Fig. 7 Correlation of the rate of selection to the evaluation of the tools.
The matrix above combines the result of the usage rate from figure 4 and the individual
valuation of each communication tool. To ensure validity, only tools that were rated by five
or more participants were included in this graph. These tools reached a relatively high score
above 4, except for advertisement, which reached a rating of 2.8 out of 5. The survey offered
participants the option to comment on their choices. Those comments give an idea of the
reasons for this particular evaluation of advertisements.
One major disadvantage of advertisements from the participants’ perspective are definitely
the high costs, especially in comparison to alternatives such as social media. It is also
relatively difficult to direct the communication at a chosen demographic, for example a
specific region or a certain age span. The overall opinion is, that the long and well-known
ways of advertisement are loosing their effectiveness and popularity as the communication
tools of choice, especially as in contrary to new media advertisement offers almost no
opportunity to interact with communication targets. One participant, speaking from
experience, said that they are less and less satisfied with the impact of advertisement on
population. Therefore advertisement is in most cases unsuitable for smaller organizations or
0
1
2
3
4
5
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Midpointofevaluations
Rate of selection
Newsletter or own print media (1)
Information events (2)
Articles in press (incl. digital) (3)
Social Media (4)
Public events (5)
Advertisement in Print and Media (6)
1
2
34
5
6
21. 21
companies and also former commercial users lose interest because of the proportion of
impact to costs.
Social Media on the other hand is a comparably new way of two-way communication and its
principles are still not studied completely. Despite that, it is mentioned in the survey as the
fourth most used tool and has been commented on by several participants as being highly
important because of its tremendous potential. The amount of opportunities for interaction,
through discussions for example, and the rapid flow of information enable a powerful new
way for civic activism and involvement. It is important to use Social Media cautiously and to
have a really good understanding of the mechanics of the tool before applying it. The
amount of information can get overcharging and the spread of a not well thought-out
message can be misunderstood and possibly end in a so called “Shitstorm”, which is best
described as a storm of indignation through a medium of the Internet against a company,
organization or even a private person. It is important not to underestimate the increasing
importance of social media as a communication tool and at the same time the damage it can
cause.
Nevertheless, the key to successfully creating awareness and convincing people of the need
for action seems to be to keep a good balance between widespread communication and
directed communication for approaching specific demographics. This is also why for example
articles in the press and focused information events are just as important. Because of the
necessity of combining different tools, it is plausible that almost all tools of the survey
achieved a high weighting, as each individual situation and strategy needs a combination of
different and complementary tools. The digitalization happening right now just started a
shift of tools applied towards the Internet, which is why for example unaddressed direct mail
services lose their importance due to their bad cost-benefit ratio compared to electronic
newsletters sent through email lists.
22. 22
4.2.4 Positioning in the AIDA-Model
Fig. 8 Placement of the communication tools in the AIDA-model according to survey participants.
Based on the insights of the previous chapter, this figure gives a better idea on the intention
of the communication. Therefor the participants were asked in what phase of the
communication process, based on the AIDA-model explained in chapter 3.1.2, they would
see or intent to use their applied tools. The graph above now shows the amount of
placements for the four most used tools in each of the four phases. Additionally, the thicker
and continuous the line of a tool is the more they are used by the participants. For exact
numbers, please refer to the graph in the previous chapter.
What this figure clearly shows is that no tool is the same. All of them seem to have their own
assets and drawbacks, which is why every phase has another dominant tool. For example
articles in the press is the favorite communication channel to create interest in a topic
amongst the citizens whereas information events are broadly used to guide trough the final
phase of taking action. The only tool with an almost consistent application throughout the
process is social media. Newsletter and own print media on the other hand might be used by
many participants but are applied predominantly in the desire and action phase of the AIDA
model.
In conclusion, as already said, no tool can be named as better than any other tool. It shows
once more that an essential condition for a successful dialogue is using the right mix of
communication channels, specific to the topic that is supposed to be communicated.
Otherwise, especially in the case of such broad topics like Energiewende and sustainability,
the penetration of the society will never reach its necessary or possible level to successfully
introduce a social shift.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Attention Interest Desire Action
Newsletter or own Print Media
Information Events
Articles in Press (incl. digital)
Social Media
23. 23
4.3 Google Trends:
The following charts shown in chapter 4.3 are all based on data from Google Trends. It is
important to keep in mind that, as mentioned before in chapter 3.2, these statistics are only
indicating the relative popularity rating of a certain term searched for on Google.
Generally, Google Trends is a really helpful tool to identify and illustrate the topics of
interests of a country’s population. It gives an insight on how people react to information,
which they are confronted with, including the communication tools used by the participants
of the survey in chapter 4.2.3. But also certain events, which have not been initiated by an
organization or government, can increase the level of interest of a topic or even influence
others, which are related to it. Negative incidents have typically a greater impact on public
awareness and interest, as they are often followed by action being taken to minimize actual
impact or future impact in case of possible repetition. The data from Google Trends
therefore allows drawing conclusions about the impact, intensity and general influence of
communication and events over the past few years. The following chapters show the
development over time of search requests for selected terms, based on the topics of interest
asked for in the survey in chapter 4.2.1, and give explanations for the individual graphs.
4.3.1 Energiewende (ge. verbatim energy transition)
Fig. 9: SVI of Google Trends for “Energiewende“ in Germany.
Renewable energy has developed its growing share in the German energy mix already since
199127
and is one of the key elements of the Energiewende. Therefore it seems suspicious
why the term Energiewende itself was never of public interest until the beginning of 2011.
Before that, experts and employees in the energy industry might only have been responsible
for the search requests but suddenly the numbers of searches for this topic rocketed. As
discussed in the next paragraph, the explanation for this phenomenon dates back a couple
of years.
27
Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany (2016)
0
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24. 24
Germany has always been a country with an energy sector based on coal and nuclear
energy. Although there was still no real solution for nuclear waste, the German
conservative-liberal government, after winning the federal election, decided in October 2010
to even expand the operating time of the nuclear power plants until the latest of 203628
.
Additionally the renewable energy technologies were still relatively expensive, especially for
private people to invest into, until later on when the government decided to support the
expansion through funding programs.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster on the 11th
of March 2011 in Japan, triggered by an
earthquake, has changed the way of thinking ever since. Suddenly nuclear power plants
were on everyone’s lips and the general mindset demanded reactions and changes. The
German government quickly edited its plans just three months after the disaster and
announced to shut down all nuclear power plants until 202229
. Besides this, the federal
chancellor Angela Merkel declared in a speech on the 9th
of July that Germany will go a new
way towards a new era of renewably energy with the goal to raise the share of renewables
in the energy consumption to 60 per cent and in the electricity consumption to 80 per cent
by 205030
. Furthermore the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent until the
same year was an additional goal, which was supposed to be achieved mainly through
building refurbishments. As a supportive action, the government decided to implement
funding programs for renewable energy technologies and projects.
These drastic sanctions triggered a nationwide rethinking in the society and introduced
sustainability and the term Energiewende to the open public. Additionally the uprising
presence of climate change has raised the awareness amongst the citizens and also
intensified the desire to not only leave the realization of the Energiewende to the politicians
and organizations but to take actions themselves. Still, the term does not generate as many
search requests on Google as “Photovoltaik” for example (see fig. 14). The reason is
probably that Energiewende itself as a term stands for an extensive and complex topic
consisting of several aspects such as renewable energies and energy efficiency. If people
now want to get information about technologies or possibilities to take action, they would
probably rather search one of these more specific terms than the term Energiewende.
28
Deutsche Welle (27.12.2011)
29
Deutsche Welle (27.12.2011)
30
The Federal Government of Germany (09.06.2011)
25. 25
4.3.2 Erneuerbare Energien (ge. renewable energies)
Fig. 10: SVI of Google Trends for “Erneuerbare Energien“ in Germany.
The graph of search requests for “Renewable Energy” fluctuates on the same level since
2004, with strong short peaks in between, and experienced a slight decrease in recent times.
Interesting is the periodicity of the low points each year in the months of August and
December. It seems like that the interest in this topic correlates with the summer and winter
holidays, which gives some indication of how people adhere to it.
The answer to this behavior is, amongst others, that renewable energies are still mainly seen
as a large-scale topic and not a topic that affects people personally, as already explained in
the last paragraph. Therefore this is not a matter to spend a lot of spare time on.
Additionally the term itself consists of many different sections, such as Energiewende,
including for example all the different technologies, which is why it is rather used to gather
basic information than informing about details or opportunities to take action. The
important difference to the development of interest in Energiewende is clearly that
renewable energies have been part of the German energy mix since 199131
, as already
mentioned in the last chapter. Although in this case, the disaster of Fukushima clearly was
not the starting point, it certainly had a huge temporary impact on the public interest, as the
amount of search requests after the event marks by far the highest value since the beginning
of record. The impact of the Renewable Energies Act (EEG) on the interest in renewable
energies will be discussed in the next two chapters, because of the greater importance and
the more visible influence in the graphs.
31
Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany (2016)
0
20
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26. 26
4.3.3 Photovoltaik
Fig. 11: SVI of Google Trends for „Photovoltaik“and new installed photovoltaic capacity per year in Germany.
32
Compared to the development of the graph of renewable energy, the interest in
photovoltaic in Germany is even stronger characterized by the national holidays, which again
mark the low points each year around August and especially December. The amount of
interest also strongly correlates with the course of new installed capacity over time, with the
highest activity between 2009 and 2012. Although the first assumption would be that laws
and funding programs of the government directed this trend, the motivation originates from
the development of the market itself.
The expansion of installed photovoltaic capacity started hesitantly with the first law called
Stromeinspeisungsgesetz (Electricity Feeding Act) back in 1991, which was the first of its kind
to support renewable energies33
and later on in 2000 renamed as Renewable Energies Act
(Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz, EEG). Yet, the share of solar power in the energy mix did not
grow notably until the end of 2008 although the feed-in electricity compensation, for
photovoltaic panels with up to 30kW/p, offered a rate of 57,40 Cent per kWh in 2004 and
decreased since then34
until the amendment in 2012, which involved major changes of the
laws to the detriment of the owners of photovoltaic panels.
Therefore, the explanation for the strong increase in installations might not be connected to
the national compensation, but is nonetheless a financial aspect. Before 2009, the retail
price for installed photovoltaic panels of up to 10 kWp always alternated at a level slightly
above 4.300 € per kWp, But suddenly, in the first quarterly period of 2009, the competition
on the market changed and the price has been declining since then, reaching a low of 1.751
€ per kWp at the end of 201235
. This exceptional price slump was mainly caused by strongly
increasing competition between the major manufacturers of photovoltaic panels on the
32
Quaschning (2016)
33
Lüdeke-Freund, Opel (2014) p. 439
34
Modernus.de [20.04.2016]
35
Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft e.V. (2012)
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SVI Photovoltaik New installed PV capacity
27. 27
market. Three years later in 2012, the sudden slowdown of interest and new installations
was certainly caused by the amendment of the EEG, mentioned earlier. The government
successfully slowed down the expansion with the help of a stronger digression system and a
cut down of the feed-in compensation by 15 per cent36
. One of the reasons officially given
for throttling the expansion of photovoltaic was the extreme price dumping on the market,
due to foreign competition37
. Chinese photovoltaic companies exported their products at a
price way below the level of even the biggest European producers, which caused a crisis on
the market and drove many of them into bankruptcy, including Solarworld, SMA Solar and
Q-Cells in Germany38
. European Union then tried to counteract with anti-dumping probes in
201239
.
All these incidents certainly had an impact on the public’s interest in solar energy. Combined
with the two lines, this leads to the assumption that the interest is mainly guided by financial
aspects and personal benefits of photovoltaic. What strengthens this argument are the short
dramatic decreases during public holiday, as for example clearly visible in December 2010.
Photovoltaic is still seen from a technical point of view, which is most of the time associated
with financial investments. The question people ask themselves at first is “How much does it
cost me?” rather than “Am I able to support sustainability with my own solar panel?”.
4.3.4 Vegan
Fig. 12: SVI of Google Trends for “Vegan” in Germany.
As shown in the timeline above, the interest in veganism roughly started at the beginning of
2011 and since then experienced an almost constant rise with some fluctuations between
2014 and today. Comparing the shape of the graph to the other search terms shows that this
trend is unique. The peaks and low points don’t show such a great spread and especially the
climb between 2011 and 2014 is extremely linear, which indicates that the interest is not a
reaction to single events. This can be seen as an ideal development of a trend and is
36
Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany (28.06.2016)
37
Grasselt (2015) p. 284
38
Hackhausen (11.07.2012)
39
Clover (26.03.2014)
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28. 28
probably the result of a good stepwise penetration of the society throughout all milieus. One
aspect responsible for this progress is for sure the intensity of confrontation of citizens with
the topic.
Nutrition, or more specifically the selection and preparation of food, has more points of
contact in the daily life than any other topic analyzed in this report. People are therefore
easier to approach and are more susceptible to a new trend. Interestingly is though that the
increase of interest represents rather the outcome of a global trend with no particular
initiator or hidden agenda. The first European supermarket with vegan products only
opened on the 26th
of February in 2011 in Dortmund4041
and since then many other
supermarket chains were founded and restaurants adapted their menus. Also a lot of
different role model celebrities and persons of public interest in the United States, such as
Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton, publicly confirmed that they changed their
diet4243
. Bruno Loubet, a French chef de cuisine, believes in the trend of sustainability in food
and Jamie Oliver agreed by saying that restaurants with less meat on the menu plan are the
future44
. The circulation through the news, media and Internet erased the image of a trend
only lived by “hippies and animal rights activists” and transformed veganism into a new
lifestyle, which people wanted to achieve because of the promoted benefits, such as an
increased health and a contribution to sustainability. Vegans are now seen as the new
passionate avant-garde and the status is something to strive for.45
In conclusion, the trend of veganism can be seen as a example par excellence for a
successful process of a broad range social shift. A critical factor in this case is clearly the
unintentional involvement of testimonials, such as mentioned above, and the broad
availability of products suitable for a vegan diet to easily adopt this lifestyle. Additionally
changing the personal diet plan can be done as a step-by-step process with no big risks or
investments and therefore always the option to back out.
40
Deutsche Welle (10.03.2011)
41
ruhrnachrichten.de (26.02.2011)
42
Holpuch (26.11.2013)
43
Mesure (08.12.2013)
44
Attwood (11.01.2015)
45
Gordinier (29.09.2015)
29. 29
4.3.5 Elektroauto (ge. Electric car)
Fig. 13: SVI of Google Trends for “Elektroauto” and new registrations of electric cars per year in Germany.
46
The development of search requests in Germany for the term „Elektroauto“ (ge. electric car)
has experienced a slight but constant rise since 2004 with some strongly noticeable peaks
over time, which themselves didn’t last for long but probably are responsible for the steady
increase by starting and stimulating this national trend and social shift.
Since 2006, when the Tesla Roadster was revealed and General Motors was the next
company to follow two years later with the Chevrolet Volt, electric cars have started to get
the attention of the public. The peaks in the graph can certainly be traced to
announcements and releases of new models on the market, such as at the beginning of
2012, when the new Tesla Model X was unveiled47
and the first deliveries of the Model S
were announced48
. What is remarkable is that the graph rocketed just recently in the
beginning of 2016. With no doubt, the unveil event of the Tesla Model 3 on the 31st
of
March49
is clearly the cause for this extreme increase of interest, especially due to the
relatively low price of the vehicle, which is supposed to help Tesla to reach the mass market
and therefore got broad attention on the media50
.
These events, as already explained in chapter 4.2.1, are questioning the leadership of the
German automotive industry and resulted till recently in hesitation justified by uncertainties
about the potential market and the technology. But in April this year, with the government
finally announcing a funding program for electric cars with a budget of 1.2 billion Euros, the
Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel believes that we are now
witnessing the beginning of an evolution of mobility51
. And it seems like that the German
46
statistica (2016h)
47
Tesla Motors Blog (09.02.2012)
48
Tesla Motors Blog (22.05.2012)
49
Tesla Motors Blog (21.03.2016)
50
Zeit Online (01.04.2016)
51
Süddeutsche Zeitung (27.04.2016)
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SVI Elektroauto New registrations of cars with electrical drivetrains
30. 30
population agrees. Already since 2010, the amount of new registrations of cars with an
electric drivetrain experiences a constant rise, with no end in sight. Additionally recent
scandals for sure as well have had influence on the interest in sustainable mobility. In
September 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was able to prove, that
Volkswagen has manipulated its cars to pass emission tests for nitrogen oxides52
. This wasn’t
limited to a certain model, but even models of Audi and Porsche were involved. Such a
worldwide scandal clearly stained the image of the German brands and fortified the opinion
in the society that sustainability also in the car industry is and has to be the future. The rise
of new alternatives and concepts in mobility is consequently supported by the increasing
doubts about the still dominant combustion engines and will definitely gather momentum in
the next decades.
4.3.6 Overview
Fig. 14: SVIs of Google Trends for the previous terms combined in Germany.
After analyzing each graph by itself, this diagram now puts the terms into in relation to each
other. Similar to the concept of the graphs in the last chapters, the search volume indexes
are now oriented to the term with the highest value.
It is clear to see that the more personal the topic of a term is, the greater is the interest.
Especially vegan and photovoltaic seem to be of much higher importance for the people
than the remaining topics, with electrical mobility of growing interest. This can definitely be
seen as a positive outcome and success of the communication, as nutrition and solar panels
offer direct opportunities for the citizens to take action. The lines of renewable energies and
electric cars seem to fluctuate on a similar level and slightly flip horizontal over a long
52
US Environmental Protection Agency [28.04.2016]
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Energiewende Erneuerbare Energien Photovoltaik Elektroauto Vegan
31. 31
period, with electric cars being stronger by today. Especially mobility still offers a great
potential for an increase in interest, which might have been suppressed until now because of
the national industry structure, as already explained earlier. Furthermore, although the
single graph of Energiewende in chapter 4.3.1 implies an impressive and meaningful boom in
2011, the interest is by far the lowest of all topics throughout the whole period from 2004
until now.
4.3.7 Comparison with the Netherlands
Fig. 15: SVIs of Google Trends for the translated terms in the Netherlands.
Due to a lot of different factors, such as language barriers, different social development or
economical influences, it is nearly impossible to get a direct comparison between two
countries. Nevertheless, the chosen Dutch terms are meaningwise as close to the German
one’s as possible and allow the drawing of relations, while still keeping the factors in mind.
What clearly draws the attention is the extremely strong interest in solar panels
(zonnepanelen), which started in the beginning of 2012, showing the same seasonal
fluctuations with low points around August and December during the public holidays.
“Vegan” reached the second highest search volume index, but with a great gap to solar
panels. The index for this term might be the only hint on the dimensions for each trend line,
as this new form of nutrition has probably been introduced and influenced by the American
culture as well as in Germany. Therefore it is quite surprising that solar panels are of such
greater importance to the Dutch society. But also electric cars (elektrische auto) are
comparably dominant, which is clearly due to the difference in the national’s economies.
Only renewable energy (hernieuwbare energie) and energy transition (energietransitie) have
almost no search volume when put in relation to the other terms. Sure, the Dutch
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Energietransitie Herniewbare Energie Zonnepanelen
Elektrische Auto Vegan
32. 32
government has agreed on the climate change policy goals of the European Union53, but by
now, only France is performing worse on fulfilling the targets in time. At least 14 per cent of
the total national energy consumption should be provided by renewable energy sources by
2020 and the Netherlands had a RES of 5.5 per cent in 2014, according to the official
statistics54. One reason for the second poorest record in the European Union might be the
relatively low funding programs and subsidies for promotion of renewable energy of the
national government, compared to Germany for example.
The overall impression of this short analysis is that the energy transition in the Netherlands
is not as firmly established as in the German society. It is not seen as a national project
supported and striven for by every stakeholder or is in the process of changing the society’s
mentality. Citizens rather seem to pick up trends happening in other countries with clearly
not the main intention to support the national ambition of sustainability. The difference to
Germany is therefore that the influence is for the most part not coming from the inside but
from the outside, which leaves less control over the development and lowers the chance for
a successful change of the society. It is now on the Dutch government and the involved
organizations to give these trends a direction and deeper purpose to activate the full
potential for a contribution to a sustainable future in the Netherlands.
53
The Federal Government of the Netherlands [02.05.2016]
54
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (31.03.2016)
33. 33
5 Conclusion
The survey and Google Trends gave a short and complete overview of the current situation
of the Energiewende in Germany throughout the chapters of the report, especially as both
parties of the communication where considered. The outcome of the research can be
narrowed down to a small number of important insights.
What really has to be recognized as a result of this investigation is that Fukushima definitely
made its contribution to the society’s change towards a sustainable future. As seen
throughout chapter 4.3, the catastrophe definitely influenced the process of the
Energiewende. Although the German citizens themselves will not experience any direct
harm under no circumstances because of the far distance to the accident scene, the strong
impact on the national mentality is undeniable. If it did not happen, the Energiewende
would definitely not prove to be as successful as it is today. The resulting question now is,
why does a society only recognize the necessity of action to it’s fullest after it witnessed a
disaster that can be seen as a possible outcome of negation of the problem? It is now the
government’s and the organizations’ job to mobilize the necessary resources to prevent
other disasters and to clearly deny this question before the only opportunity left is damage
limitation.
As this is then a guided process of a shift for the whole society, the communication still
needs constant adaptation of the strategies and has to involve every aspect of sustainability
because the Energiewende is less of a project than more of a change in every person’s
mindset. In the case of this report, the German economy has to accept and furthermore
considerably support and fund trends. The current attitude of hesitation, as discussed in the
chapter 4.2.1 and 4.3.5, might be understandable because of their special history of the
national economy, but will turn into a drawback for the country sooner or later.
Another important insight of this report is the way the communication tools are currently
used. The question about the positioning of the tools in the AIDA-model in chapter 4.2.4
shows that the key to success is definitely an appropriate mix of communication tools to
enable a broad penetration of the society. Additionally, the survey participants are in
agreement about the growing importance of Social Media and will or already have
implemented it as a new channel. It also seems to slowly supersede the long known tool of
advertisement on TV, radio and print and emphasizes the importance of interaction and
discussion in today’s communication.
Finally the comparison with the Netherlands in chapter 4.3.7 shows, that no country’s
society reacts the same to different influences. Therefore there is no all-round solution on
how to guide a society towards sustainability. The only key to success is to fully understand
the attitude and mindset of the citizens and based on that knowledge to initiate a
progressive and comprehensive dialogue through the right balance of different
communication channels to enable the necessary penetration of the society to successfully
introduce a social shift and guide the nation towards a new sustainable era.
