An Analysis of Energy Behaviour Programs in the Workplace
I’ve come across a few good reports recently on energy efficiency and sustainability in the workplace. I might write about more of these, but the first that I think is worth a look is Greening Work Styles: An Analysis of Energy Behaviour Programs in the Workplace from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
Greensense View® is designed to spearhead a behavior change program, providing engaging, relevant feedback to building occupants such as the Head to Head module pictured
- setting the tone with the strong support of upper management,
- building a team with a project committee and peer champions on board,
- utilising communication tools to reach target audiences, and
- engaging building occupants by means of social norms, feedback, benign peer pressure and competition, as well as through performance-linked rewards.
The report also provided some great specific examples of that tactics and collateral used in each program: copies of posters, branding and logos, specific initiatives, rewards, real-time tracking tools, pledges and commitment schemes, and so on. There are some good ideas there.
The report also identified one area that needed more work across each case study, which was a good evaluation framework. It noted that “the absence of any evaluation framework for energy behavior programs may explain the lack of the evaluation information needed to assess the effectiveness of these programs, a substantial shortcoming that may lead to their exclusion from other, more technologically-focused energy efficiency programs.”
I think the last point is a good one. We know programs focused purely on behaviour change can deliver good savings, and while there are some good studies that demonstrate this, it is much harder to try and quantify the potential benefits in advance, compared with opportunities like lighting refits, or recommissioning HVAC systems.
When we help our customers with behaviour change programs, we always use Greensense View®. Not only does it provide a great way to engage employees and provide immediate feedback on improvements, it provides an important record of energy use before and after the program, and does enable rigorous evaluation.
