by Shane Henson — January 16, 2012—Facilities managers hoping to see long-term energy savings can speed and significantly boost their efforts through educating employees on energy management to ultimately promote and sustain an energy-efficient office culture. In fact, “energy behavior programs” aimed at reducing building energy use through change in employees’ attitudes and behaviors, such as those instituted at the House of Representatives and the Empire State Building, have already shown positive results, according to a report released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) titled Greening Work Styles: Analysis of Energy Behavior Programs in the Workplace. Just as important, these programs also create benefits that extend beyond the workplace, as participants often become more energy conscious at home and in their communities, say the report’s authors.
One of the case studies examined and detailed in the report, “Green the Capitol,” a program instituted by the House of Representatives, was recognized as a positive example of how government can deploy low-cost, low-risk energy initiatives to control its own energy usage through the change of its employees’ attitudes and behavior toward energy saving.
The Green the Capitol initiative promoted a comprehensive package aimed at reducing energy use, waste, and the carbon footprint of the House of Representatives by switching electricity fuel from coal to natural gas, relighting the Capitol Dome with compact fluorescent light bulbs, and promoting a series of behavior programs at offices such as turning off computers and other office equipment when not in use, carpooling, commuting by bicycle, and recycling. Eighteen months after its launch, the Green the Capitol program had reduced the institution’s carbon footprint by 74 percent.
The report also looked at four other energy behavior case studies across the United States and Canada, including the “Tenant Energy Management Program” in the Empire State Building; “Conservation Action!” at BC Hydro, Canada; an energy behavior campaign undertaken at a provincial governmental building in Canada; and the “TLC-Care to Conserve” program at the University Health Network of the University of Toronto.
According to the report’s authors, four common intervention approaches were shared by the five energy behavior programs: (1) setting the tone with the support of upper management and its public pledge; (2) building a team with a project committee and peer champions on board; (3) utilizing communication tools such as e-mails, prompts, Web sites, public meetings, and posters to reach target audiences; and (4) engaging building occupants by means of feedback, benign peer pressure, and competition, as well as through performance-linked rewards.
