Who are SGN and what’s the sustainability issue?

Continuing our theme on the 2024 MRS Awards nominations Jigsaw has received, this week it’s SGN and Jigsaw’s Sustainability Research nomination…

SGN is an acronym that has become an unexpected part of everyday parlance in the Jigsaw office of late. So, who are they and why should anyone care?

SGN is a Gas Distribution Network or GDN (another acronym!) responsible for the infrastructure that transports gas to six million homes and businesses across Scotland and Southern England. Unlike gas providers, who directly engage with customers, SGN works behind the scenes ensuring a safe and reliable gas supply. Not many people realise, but if you live in the areas SGN cover, a portion of your gas bill goes to them to fund their work.

Regulated by Ofgem, SGN face a challenge. They must develop a business plan they can submit to Ofgem that is not only economically viable, but also agreeable to its customers, and works towards government-set Net Zero targets (no easy task for a gas network!)

So, the research question for us was: how can we gather customer views on SGN’s future business plan and environmental initiatives (…already a big ask), if few of their customers have heard the ‘SGN’ name, know what they do, or realise part of their energy bill goes toward their funding?

Our solution? An innovative and bespoke approach. We developed a mixed-method year-long research programme, wholly online to help minimize travel and the carbon footprint of the project. It combined two online deliberative research phases with over 100 customers in each, two quantitative surveys with 3,000 customers in each, and a long-term online panel with over 100 customers completing bi-monthly tasks.

As you can imagine, we attacked the topic from all angles; digging into how customers feel about SGN, their environmental goals and initiatives, and where they stood on potential bill increases…whether customers were coming at it ‘cold’ or felt part of the “SGN family” as they began to learn and reflect together (a direct quote from one of our participants by the end!), they all had their say.

After what has been a mammoth piece of research and a huge team effort, we are very proud to have had the research shortlisted for the MRS Sustainability Award 2024. We’re all very much looking forward to raising a toast to celebrate and wish the other nominees good luck!

Next week we’ll be talking about the nomination our colleague Ellie has received for Young Researcher of the Year.

If you’re interested in getting more detail on this nomination, or any others, please get in touch!

Ellie Wroe Wright & Mel Taylor, Nov 24