How Yugo residents cut energy use by up to 10.8% — with no new hardware.
“Once residents could see their own energy and comfort data inside the app they already used, we saw real behavioural change almost immediately - no new hardware, no disruption, just visibility. It’s exactly the kind of proof point that makes a wider rollout an easy conversation.”Karina Kava - Global Sustainability Manager, Yugo
The Client.
Yugo is the first global student housing brand and operator, known for combining quality accommodation with an active approach to ESG and resident experience. Dominick Place and Melbourn Point, both in Cork, were selected as Yugo assets to roll-out Utopi insights into their resident app; and form part of a wider resident engagement programme with a key goal of reducing overall energy consumption.
The Challenge.
Yugo needed a way to put live energy and environmental data directly into residents’ hands, inside the app they already used, but it also needed to be tailored to how Dominick Place and Melbourn Point actually operate. As a long term partner of Yugo, Utopi innovated a purpose-built API integration between The Utopi Platform and the Yugo resident app to make those needs possible, specifically engineered so it would work reliably for Yugo’s existing operational systems and resident experience.
With that foundation in place, and a clear pathway for quality data to residents, the campaign was agreed: An 8-week programme where access to real-time building data, in the hands of residents, would encourage positive changes in energy management and heating behaviours.
The Utopi Solution.
Residents at both sites were split into Low, Medium and High energy-use bands based on baseline consumption, and tracked weekly via The Utopi Platform for the 8-week programme:
- Low & Medium bands: Entered prize draws for staying cool and keeping consumption down — a simple, positive reward for the behaviour Yugo and Utopi wanted to reinforce.
- High band: Given a genuine way back in — the closer a resident moved toward Low, the better their odds and the bigger the available prizes.
No demands, no penalties — just visibility into real data and a reason to act on it.
The Impact.
Dominick Place: -8.7%
Melbourn Point: -10.8%
Combined Impact: €3,643
- DOMINICK PLACE: €2,649 saved · 10,190 kWh avoided (117,635 → 107,446 kWh)
- MELBOURN POINT: €994 saved · 3,821 kWh avoided (35,312 → 31,491 kWh)
- COMBINED PILOT IMPACT: 14,011 kWh avoided, valued at €0.26/kWh
- Data availability held above 99% at both sites for the full pilot window, further validating the auditable data trail from Utopi.
Why it Worked: Comfort-led Behaviour, not Automation.
The mechanism behind the savings was consistent across both sites: Lower average room temperatures and fewer rooms running above 24°C. Neither site changed its heating infrastructure during the pilot — Dominick Place’s Utopi smart heating controls saw no configuration changes year-on-year, and Melbourn Point has no smart heating controls installed at all.
This means, every kilowatt-hour saved came from residents adjusting their own behaviour once they could see the impact of it. See below how these sites performed compared to other Yugo sites, on percentages of rooms above 24°C and then average room temperature.
Benchmarked against comparable Cork sites, electricity use per bed at Melbourn Point already sits 8–20% below sites without the programme — with entirely manual engagement and no automation to help.
A positive sign of collaboration, data-driven engagement strategies and resident engagement via digital communications.
See what visibility could do across your portfolio, speak to Utopi today.