Industry focus: Heat Transition & Municipal Heat Planning
Heating and cooling are technically complex, politically charged, and close to home
Ellery Studio supports municipalities, associations, research institutions, energy stakeholders, and public authorities through the heat transition with strategic consulting, climate communication, information design, storytelling, and participation formats. We make visible how heat infrastructure connects to buildings, neighborhoods, costs, comfort, and climate protection.
Where we come in
Keeping a cool head: these are the challenges we know inside out
Explaining the heat transition, but how?
Heating system replacement, district heating, municipal planning, funding programs. The topic affects everyday life directly and is politically charged, yet many people still find it hard to grasp.
Complex technology
Low-temperature district heating networks, large-scale heat pumps, storage, geothermal energy. The renewable heating solutions are here, but how they work stays abstract for many audiences.
Lack of buy-in
Municipal heat planning can be technically sound and still fall flat locally. Acceptance only emerges once people understand what's coming their way and why.
Too many cooks...
... spoil the broth, and the heat plan with it. Administration, politics, municipal utilities, the housing industry, research, and the public often talk in parallel instead of with one another. What's missing is a translation that makes connections visible and interests negotiable.
How do we plan the future of heat?
Many decisions reach far into the future but are made under acute pressure. Often there's no shared picture of what local heat supply could look like in the long run.
How we work
Hot topics and cool communication around heat, cooling, buildings, and infrastructure.
Heating systems & communication
Heat transition communication: making complex heating and cooling systems easy to understand
We know both worlds: the local council meeting in a rural area, where municipal heat planning still takes some convincing, and the European Parliament in Brussels, where new MEPs need a quick, smart introduction to climate policy. Infographics, publications, explainer formats, and narrative communication tools create orientation without distorting the content. The best example is the “Team Warmth” simulation game for municipal heat planning, which we developed with dena KWW.
Everyday life & acceptance
Communication for a topic that reaches deep into everyday life
Hardly any transformation field touches everyday life as directly as heating and cooling. It's about apartments, houses, costs, retrofits, security of supply, and decisions about the future. In short, it's about quality of life. That's why we develop communication approaches that show what is planned, why it is becoming relevant, what options exist, and how different stakeholders find their place in it.
Heat infrastructure & participation
Participation where infrastructure meets society
District heating networks, neighborhood solutions, retrofit strategies, and municipal planning processes need more than technical plausibility. Above all, they need mutual understanding. We design participation and dialogue formats that take in different perspectives and turn them into robust communication and better processes.
Heat transition & information design
Visual formats for tomorrow's heat transition
When it comes to heat, it becomes clear how important good visual translation is. We develop books, digital information platforms, simulation games, infographics, campaign building blocks, and other communication tools that make complex heating, cooling, and energy topics accessible, appealing, and shareable. This is especially visible in our multiple-award-winning publication “Heat Pumps, Renewables and Other Hot Stuff” and in the magazine “Cool Contributions” that we designed for GIZ.
The digital side of the heat transition
Heat pumps, smart meters, and intelligent controls: when technology becomes a communication task
Heat pumps are replacing boilers, smart meters measure consumption in real time, and digital platforms control entire neighborhoods. Technically impressive, but often barely tangible for residents, tradespeople, and municipalities. We translate these systems into formats that create understanding and acceptance: explainer infographics, interactive visualizations, and communication tools for municipal utilities and end consumers. We laid the foundation for this with, among other things, the multiple-award-winning publication “Heat Pumps, Renewables and Other Hot Stuff.”
A look into our project world
Communication and futures work that leaves no one cold
Our services for the heat transition
Communication for heat planning, infrastructure, and acceptance
We help heat transition stakeholders put complex content into context, communicate it clearly, and translate it into effective formats.
Strategic heat transition communication
Narratives, guiding visions, and communication strategies that connect the technical transformation of heating with social reality.
Municipal heat planning & participation
Communication and dialogue formats that make municipal heat planning understandable and bring different stakeholders on board early.
Infographics & data visualization
Complex heat, energy, and infrastructure data become precise visual formats that make connections quicker to grasp.
Publications & knowledge formats
Books, brochures, fact sheets, comics, and digital formats that convey the heat transition in a well-founded, accessible, and visually compelling way.
Dialogue & participation formats
Workshops, dialogue formats, citizen participation, and campaigns that actively involve stakeholders and make transformation tangible.
Foresight, scenarios & future visions
Futures processes and visual scenarios that make long-term developments in the heating sector easier to think through systematically.
Who we work with
We speak the language of the heat transition and know how to get your message across compellingly.
Municipalities & the public sector
For communication that makes heat planning understandable and can translate between administration, politics, and the public.
Energy suppliers & grid operators
For formats that make technical solutions comprehensible and strengthen trust in complex transformation processes.
Associations & industry initiatives
For strategic communication that sharpens positions, makes knowledge accessible, and effectively accompanies public debates.
Research & science
For knowledge formats that present technical and societal findings in an understandable way and reach new audiences.
Housing industry & neighborhoods
For communication that stays close to people's realities and makes complex changes in the building sector tangible.
Heat Transition & Climate Communication Team
Experts in heat, societal transformation, and storytelling
We know how heat pumps work, what smart meters can do, and where municipal energy plans fail in practice. This technical understanding is not a side issue. It is the foundation of our communication, which never talks past the topic.
Bernd Riedel
Executive Creative Director
Dodo Vögler
Executive Creative Director
Eugen Litwinow
Managing Director
Andreas Lohner
Infographics & Editorial
