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Community insights help Mercury and Genesis refine approach to ‘hidden’ hardship 15 February 2024 – Mercury and Genesis Energy are focussed on changing how they support their customers in “hidden” hardship following a 2-year research project with community groups. The research set out to look at how retailers could better play a role in supporting energy customers who are hardto-reach or “hidden” to them, but still suffer considerable hardship. A pivotal early insight was that community groups often have relationships with these whānau, highlighting the importance of industry support of community groups in breaking barriers and ensuring households receive the level of support they need. Sustainable Energy Advice CEO Dr Sea Rotmann, who led the research, said Mercury and Genesis will now use the insights from community groups as guiding principles for their work around energy hardship. “These insights were grouped into themes of building trust; giving community a voice; industry knowing when to ‘stay in their lane’ and support community groups to do the work they do, and developing mana-enhancing practices. These themes provide a simple guide for industry to focus its attention.” Community agencies offered 70 potential actions and ideas for addressing hardship, many of which would require collaboration with others. These have been prioritised and several initiatives are underway. “Energy hardship is a complex and increasingly common issue in Aotearoa, and as our largest retailers, Mercury and Genesis recognise the potential they have to effect meaningful change,” said Dr Rotmann. “A sustainable solution to energy hardship will, however, require sectors and stakeholders across the economy to collaborate towards this same goal, so we hope this mahi will serve as an example that collaboration on eliminating energy hardship is essential, exciting, and extremely effective.” Mercury Executive General Manager Customer Craig Neustroski said, “This research has been invaluable for helping us better understand the needs of our communities and customers, and where we need to focus our efforts to have the most impact. We’re committed to continuing to collaborate with community, and others, to improve outcomes for New Zealanders.” Genesis’ Chief Retail Officer Stephen England-Hall said, “Energy retailers have drastically improved their approach to supporting customers experiencing hardship in recent years, but we recognise there remains a lot of work to do. We’re tremendously grateful to the community groups who were so generous with their time and insights. The work doesn’t stop here, we will now seek to understand the most impactful way to translate the lessons learned into action.” Examples of Mercury initiatives underway include: • A Here to Help team dedicated to creating effective and sustainable solutions for customers in hardship. Information about the support they can provide is available on Mercury’s payment support webpage. • A trial with the Debt Relief Foundation to provide tailored payment solutions to customers with overdue accounts. • A targeted 12-month pilot with the Community Energy Network and The Sustainability Org to help 20 customers in hardship improve the energy efficiency of their homes.