ENERGY EFFECIENCY;
Turning Employees Into Energy Ambassadors
Energy bills form a significant part of an organisation’ s expenditure. Employers have an opportunity to reduce these costs by converting their employees into becoming energy ambassadors. Many organisations are grappling with high bills and are having a hard time implementing energy efficiency programmes. While technology plays a big role in bringing down the energy cost, employee behavior must play an active role. Installing more efficient equipment is often at the forefront of the engineers mind when it comes to driving down energy consumption, but even the most energyefficient kit still requires human involvement.
In many of organizations, energy efficiency has been left to engineering yet research has shown that when you train energy ambassadors you are able to reduce your energy consumption by up to 18 %. New evidence shows that businesses need to focus on the impact that people have on energy within the business. It is referred to as‘ Carbon Psychology’- which is the study of human behavior in relation to energy management. By studying energy-consuming behavior, we can explore how energy can be saved through inclusion of employees
Interventions which influence occupant behavior hold significant potential both in directly creating savings and indirectly via changing organizational culture and hence decision-making. Individuals and groups within larger businesses are often overlooked by Government policy which forms a good contact in implementing government policy. Energy efficiency is much more likely to become a strategic objective for businesses when energy consumption becomes salient.
This means instituting monitoring and reporting practices and combining energy efficiency messaging with a broader efficiency agenda. When energy efficiency is targeted as having strategic value, access to finance becomes easier, particularly for larger businesses. Hence creating awareness on areas of wastage, monitoring and reporting the impact of change initiatives and recognizing efforts in that change will play a key role in making energy efficiency sustainable. There is“ a clear view from employers that cutting carbon emissions has significant knock-on benefits, including building organizational reputation, being seen as a pro-environmental brand, improving sales / customer retention, recruiting and retaining high quality staff, reducing operating costs and meeting regulatory requirements”
When energy efficiency is targeted as having strategic value, access to finance becomes easier, particularly for larger businesses.
46 WATTS UP MAGAZINE APR- MAY 2017