AgroBioHeat local perception surveys

AgroBioHeat project selected the most promising agrobiomass initiatives around Europe that will be further supported and promoted throughout the project. In order to support the initiatives and to better engage the local communities around these agrobiomass projects, Agrobioheat examines in depth and seeks to understand the reasons that make citizens to support a biomass project or the factors behind the rejection of a biomass initiative.

In this framework a series of local perception surveys took place whose main goal is to reveal the main perceptions of the citizens and the consumers around agrobiomass heating.

The activity took place in six different European countries (France, Greece, Romania, Ukraine, Spain, Croatia). A targeted survey questionnaire has been prepared in order to capture the perceptions, drivers and barriers of agrobiomass heating in each project’s regional area and in close collaboration with project partners (INASO-PASEGES, AVEBIOM, AILE, GEA, UABIO, ZEZ) local surveys by telephone interviews were carried out.

In addition, in order to further examine the findings from the surveys a workshop will take place in each area. In these workshops a group of people with different experiences and backgrounds, through brainstorming sessions will try to find out the reasons behind supporting or resisting an agrobiomass project. Their beliefs will be documented and used to strengthen the results from the telephone survey.

Finally, the findings from the surveys and workshops will help to understand the beliefs of each local community and guide the partners to adopt the best practices in order to engage the citizens of the area.