Energy-saving occupant behaviours in offices: change strategies

Abstract

As regulated energy consumption in buildings is reduced; the proportional importance of unregulated energy consumption increases. Reducing unregulated energy use in the commercial office requires an understanding of the factors that influence workplace behaviour. To date these factors have been assumed to be similar to those that influence behaviour in the home. However, the social dynamics of the workplace are different to that in the home. This study examined the degree to which theories of behaviour change generated largely in a domestic building setting could be used as the basis for designing interventions to reduce unregulated energy consumption in the workplace. The study examined the unregulated energy consumption of 39 workers engaged in office type activities in two separate locations. Following a 100 day monitoring period, three behaviour change interventions were developed and their impact measured over a 100 day period.Results from the study found, on average, an 18.8% reduction in energy use was achieved.Furthermore, by comparing pre and post intervention responses to an environmental questionnaire it was evident that savings were realised without significant changes to pro-environmental attitude or perceived social norms, which may have implications for energy saving interventions in the commercial sector.

Occupant engagement in the office environment: role assumptions about the building manager

“…Persuasion was important to support initial recruitment and ongoing participation in the practice. This was achieved, for example, by sending e-mail reminders (Gulbinas and Taylor, 2014; Murtagh et al , 2013, Mulville et al , 2016), raising awareness via printed cards (Lockton et al , 2013) and communicating specific motivational messages (Nilsson et al , 2015). Further, Lockton et al (2013) argue that adding new types of technology “apps” can help in keeping staff engaged.…”

“…“sustainability matters” or “Earth Day”). Similarly, other studies use electronic messaging to convey the importance of saving energy in the workplace and share information with occupants about energy-saving actions (Mulville et al , 2016; Nilsson et al , 2015; Gulbinas and Taylor, 2014). This form of education is in line with the notion of normative beliefs as described by Ajzen (1975), aiming to establish that the desired behavior is perceived as normal or standard within a social group.…”

“…This form of education is better associated to theories on control beliefs , aiming to strengthen the link between the actions of building occupants and expected energy consumption outcomes. Both Yearley et al (2013) and Mulville et al (2016) expressly target control beliefs within their interventions. However, Yearley et al (2013) introduced workshops mediated by BMs to allow occupants to come up with their own solutions.…”

Content Validation of the User Attitudinal Component and Factors in Green Building

“…Šujanová et al (2019);Gene-Harn et al(2016);Totterdell & Niven (2014);Hume (2012);Küller et al (2006) Preference Šujanová et al (2019); Lee at al. (2019); Carpino et al, (2017); Gene-Harn et al (2016); Martinaitis et al (2015); Jazizadeh et al (2014); Gao and Keshav (2013) Motivation Pereira & Ramos (2019); Delzendeh et al (2017); Durmaz (2014); Wolfe et al (2014) Behavioral Habit Naspi et al (2018); Hansen et al (2018); Stazi (2017); Chang et al (2017); Wolfe et al (2014) Involvement Valle et al (2018); Pan et al (2017); Lazarova-Molnar & Shaker (2016); Feng et al(2015); Fried (2014); Gupta & Chandiwala (2010); Prindle (2010) Interaction Baldi et al (2018); Paone & Bacher (2018); Lallanne, D. (2016); Langevin et al (2015); Thomsen et al et al (2005); Gou & Siu-Yu Lau (2013); Brown and Cole (2009); Monfared & Sharples (2011) Learning Xiong et al (2018); Jamaludin et al (2017); Khalil et al (2011) Persuasion Fabi et al (2017); Wu et al (2017); Wolfe et al (2014);Wu (2015);Larsen et al (2010Larsen et al ( et al (2017;Mulville et al (2017);Anderson (2015);Tetlow et al (2012) …”

Energy-related standards and UK speculative office development

“…(Not) delivering speculatively built lowerenergy offices A better understanding of the energy efficiency of specifically commercial office buildings has previously been identified as a research gap (Axon, Bright, Dixon, Janda, & Kolokotroni, 2012;Nicholls, 2014;Oreszczyn & Lowe, 2009), although recent studies have contributed much to knowledge, focusing particularly on benchmarking (Hsu, 2014), the performance gap (Cohen & Bordass, 2015;De Wilde, 2014;Fedoruk, Cole, Robinson, & Cayuela, 2015;Lewry, 2015;van Dronkelaar, Dowson, Spataru, & Mumovic, 2016), the accuracy of building assessment methods (see below), effects on rent and sale values (Kontokosta, 2013) and behavioural influences and interventions (Hong & Lin, 2014;Mulville, Jones, Huebner, & Powell-Greig, 2016;Tetlow, van Dronkelaar, Beaman, Elmualim, & Couling, 2015).…”