Transforming
Our Energy Culture
Climate change and dwindling natural resources are putting enormous pressure on the energy industry. Utilities must now consider tougher environmental regulations, backed by people who are increasingly willing to take action.
Energy companies of all types need to become more consumer-focused, and they need to have a better understanding of people's needs, behaviors, and perceptions. In short, the industry must innovate—and it must do so quickly.
While much attention has been given to new energy sources and smart grid technologies, what needs critical attention from designers, technologists, and innovators is the consumer part of the equation. How can we ensure rapid market adoption of new technologies by a critical mass of the population? We believe the answer is to provide people with better digital tools, so that they can easily access, share, and compare information about how, how much, and when they consume energy. That will prevent individuals from taking energy for granted and help foster more energy-efficient behavior.
“frog combines innovative thinking around consumer behavior with an ability to deliver truly relevant products.”
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We design easy-to-use touchscreen interfaces for better home-energy management. -
frog partnered with ECOtality to develop a family of electric vehicle charging stations. -
frog and Carmanah designed a series of solar-powered street lamps. -
The WattBlocks concept allows homeowners to step on a switch and block "vampire" appliances. -
Solar-powered Charge rings create energy connections by lighting up around others. -
The resulting concepts from frog's Energy ThinkIn included the Loop, a symbol of continuity. -
"Faces" are kid-friendly characters that remind the whole family to conserve energy.
The Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative
frog is an official member of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative, a nonprofit collective that brings together utilities, suppliers, vendors, associations, and consumer advocacy groups to better understand consumers' energy needs. frog helps the SGCC find ways to engage consumers with the smart grid, identify ways to make the technology behind it more accessible, and enable positive behavior change related to clean energy.
Our Energy Expertise
Clean Technology
We develop cleaner, sustainable ways of generating, distributing, and storing energy.
Energy Management
We design mechanisms for understanding, monitoring, and managing power consumption.
Smart Tools
We create products that are intrinsically smart and ready-to-integrate—and can perform efficiently.
Home Energy Management
Beyond The Numbers
Home Energy Management Systems (HEMs) are part of a broad trend of using emerging technologies to turn previously “dumb” products into “smart” ones—a trend that is defined less by user intervention and more by machine-to-machine (M2M) communications (e.g., clothes dryer that can automatically determine the time of day when electricity is cheapest, and then start itself). In the next five to ten years of this “internet of things,” virtually any device over $20 will be connected to some kind of network. Smart homes, Home Area Networks (HANs), and HEMs will be both the enablers and the results of these emerging technologies. Download this report for a close look at the market opportunities in that space.
In 2010, in collaboration with the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative, frog hosted an Energy ThinkIn™, a workshop that harnessed the collective expertise and creativity of an exceptional group of entrepreneurs, executives, and innovators. The goal was to create a symbol and a brand for the energy-conscious consumer that can be communicated simply and socially, ultimately leading to positive behavior change. We believe the results could be game-changing.
