Energy Reduction in Offices

Arup has won at least one award for the work they have done internally on this. They have TV screens in all of their tea-rooms showing real-time data for things like their flights, computers left on over night, paper consumption etc as well as public transport information. See this link for more.

http://fieldsofactivity.com/systemstools/arup-office-realtime/


Lisa Stockwell
Manager - People & Culture
Cooper Grace Ward Lawyers
Australia

Hi Jo,

I don't have a case-study to share but I did recently attend a session at a conference where a behavior change program evaluator was talking about offices that use realtime smart meters as a means of competition between different offices/businesses to reduce energy use. Then a percentage of the energy savings went back to the winning employees. Competitions and money are always wonderful/effective incentives for this type of thing.
You also don't need to use realtime smart meters if the purchasing and installation is too much, having a system of money-back for reduced energy use (therefore savings) is a pretty good incentive on it's own!

Colleen Butterfield
Leadership Development Coordinator
Focus the Nation
United States

Case studies are hard to come by, but we are working on this at our institution too. Today I came across this:
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/01/03/5-companies-5-different-takes-employee-engagement
The whole cool biz initiative in Japan is interesting as well. Here is our site: http://www.bcit.ca/heatsavers/

Cynthia van Ginkel
Burnaby, Canada

Cynthia van Ginkel
Canada

Thanks Colin, this is an interesting site but mostly aimed at new build as far as i can tell and buit in building controls,t he offices I am thinking of are mostly in oder buildings, mine dates back to the 1600 in places, and technical fixes are not really very easy to use, its getting staff to make behavior changes I am looking for, regards Jo

Jo Horsley
Environment Wales Development Officer
Wales

Jo, unfortunately I do not know of well written case studies on how workers's behaviour was successfully changed. But, the bigger Swiss banks (UBS, Credit Suisse, and Zürcher Kantonalbank ZKB) all have specialised staff and programmes for this purpose and might therefore be able to provide you with some hands-on experience and information. If your interest goes more in the direction of SME than big companies, the city of Zurich's project "Öko-Kompass" and its practical experience so far might be of interest to you. Please feel free to contact me for further detailed information.

Best and bon courage!
Christiane

Christiane Lellig
Consultant Marketing Social Change
Stratagème. Agentur für Social Change
Switzerland

Hi Jo

I would recommend the Usable Buildings Trust as a good source of information and studies into occupant behaviour and building use particularly from the PROBE studies.

Best regards

Colin


Colin Robertson
United Kingdom