
Jake Reynolds
Advisor, Environment, Energy & Sustainability
With spiralling energy bills and growing corporate commitments to ambitious environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, many businesses are asking themselves how they can reduce their energy use.
Sizeable financial savings can be achieved by reducing energy use. As noted in a seminal discussion of workplace irrationality by Hunt Allcott and Cass Sunstein, regulations in the US that demanded more efficient fuel use in company vehicles resulted in $475 billion in savings for the businesses it impacted. Plus, introducing business energy efficiency standards had a similar effect: $27 to $64 billion in net savings for businesses over 30 years.
However, reducing energy usage at the workplace is not always as simple as just turning down the thermostat (though it sometimes is…). The amount of energy used depends on a variety of actions and choices made by various team members. To cut energy bills and emissions, the employers must facilitate a shift in the way employees behave.
Many employee behaviours contribute to workplace energy use, including how we light, heat and cool the rooms we occupy at work, as well as how we use office appliances. Moreover, employees also drive carbon emissions at broader ‘scopes’, for example by choosing how to travel to and for work and how they use and dispose of waste.
Figure 1. Sources of workplace emissions
Reducing workplace energy use is a tricky challenge for employers and behavioural scientists alike. On the one hand, workplace energy consumption is something of a tragedy of the commons: unlike when people use energy in their own homes, employees don’t directly bear the cost of the energy they use in their office; they share many workplace facilities with colleagues; and they may feel that their actions won’t make a big difference in this context.
On the other hand, employers have some unique levers to shift behaviours: staff are bound by organisational policies, look to their employers and colleagues for guidance on how to behave whilst at work, and can be held accountable for their workplace behaviour.
Each energy saving behaviour has its own set of barriers and enablers, but we have distilled some key insights from across the behavioural literature on organisational change to suggest principles of action. Drawing on our EAST framework, we suggest that to encourage employees to save energy at work, employers need to make it easy, attractive, social and timely.
The case studies below showcase the potential for using nudges to help workplaces save energy, and possible more broadly increase the uptake of a range of other green behaviours that relate to workplaces (eg more sustainable commuting, business travel, dietary choices, etc).
Figure 2. UK government departments’ energy savings thanks to the intervention as a whole
Make it Social
If your organisation is interested in helping your staff to use less energy or take up other sustainable behaviours, please contact BIT to explore opportunities to collaborate.
Advisor, Environment, Energy & Sustainability
Principal Advisor
Senior Advisor
Design and development by Soapbox.