Energy management white paper on behavioural change

WHITE PAPER

Energy Management White Paper No. 4 Reducing energy consumption by changing people’s behaviour April 2013

Energy Management White Paper No. 4 (April 2013)

Reducing energy consumption by changing people’s behaviour ________________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION There is a misconception that the sole responsibility for the success of an energy policy is that of an Energy Manager. An Energy Manager is there to drive and co-ordinate the various activities required by the policy. Success though, is another matter. It requires continual active support, commitment and participation of everyone in the organisation, from the boardroom down to the most junior members of staff.

Without that commitment and participation, even the most eloquent and wellintentioned energy policy is dead in the water. When it comes to energy, we are all guilty of unthinking behaviour. We might leave the heating on unnecessarily; when it gets too warm, we might open the windows instead of turning the heating down or, unwittingly, we turn the cooling system on only to compete with the heating – and so on.

Potentially, everyone is an Energy Manager, influencing how much or how little energy is used in and around their place of work. We need also to instil the concept that energy is a valuable raw material. Would you buy 50 expensive Yorkshire stone slabs for a patio when only 20 are needed? Of course not. So why use more energy than is required to do the job? Why leave lights on when the sunshine is streaming through the windows; or when no one is in the room?

It is easy to understand that if we can change people’s behaviour to become more “aware” of energy to the point where good practice becomes a habit, we can win huge 1|P a g e

savings in energy costs. On its own, successful behavioural change can yield savings as high as 15-20%.

The big question is how do we make sure that we really get everyone’s attention to the point where they become responsible energy managers in their own right? Here we offer twelve steps to effective employee engagement.

Behavioural Change - Twelve Steps to Effective Employee Engagement Despite widespread coverage of the benefits, many behavioural change campaigns do not reach the targets they were set to achieve. There can be many reasons for this, but a number of the more common ones can be isolated. They include: 1. Management Commitment Senior Managers need to give their full support to the campaign from the outset.

Visibility is more important than time. Key areas include releasing staff for training, ensuring that energy management is on the agenda at board meetings and releasing funds.

But senior management commitment is not enough. It is vital that middle managers are also fully behind any initiative and their support is critical to empowering employees. Many initiatives have floundered due to lack of real middle management involvement and tangible support.

2|P a g e

2. Funding Most campaigns which fail usually have one thing in common: they are attempted on a shoestring budget. No strategic plan was developed and nothing was costed. To run an effective campaign the investment level needs to be between 1% and 2% of the total annual utility bill. So a figure of around £15,000 should be considered for an annual utility bill of £1 million. This is serious money but absolutely essential.

Often people budgeting for such campaigns allow for figures between £500 and £2,000.

To reach a critical momentum these sums are simply not enough. In fact such paltry investment is wasted. It would be wiser to do nothing if less than 1% of the annual energy budget is available. It is worth remembering that technical people find it much easier to invest in hardware solutions (e.g. boilers or lighting controls) rather than 'soft' solutions such as 'people'.

3. Response Resources It is one thing to raise staff expectations and awareness but it is another to respond to the number of ideas, suggestions and questions generated by the campaign. It is important to allocate staff time to deal with the response which the campaign will generate. If people do not get a response, they may get the feeling that the response mechanism is a 'black hole' and lose interest.

4. Technical Staff Involvement Technical and energy management staff must be personally involved in the campaign. It is not possible to simply delegate a campaign to a consultant or a junior member of staff.

It is a partnership between the on-going technical management function and the campaign facilitator.

3|P a g e

5. Co-ordinated Plan and Strategy Leonard Bernstein said: “To achieve great things, two items are required: a plan and not quite enough time.” Some people complain "we tried a campaign but it was fruitless".

When asked what the campaign consisted of the response often is: "we put up some posters and stickers and had an article in the company newsletter".

A campaign does not equate to a few posters and stickers. On their own these things are not effective. However, if they are one of 20 other initiatives which are part of a coordinated strategy, they can be useful reminders. It is also important to design and brand the campaign appropriate to corporate culture. Every culture is different so 'off the shelf' campaigns are not very effective. Each campaign must be carefully crafted and tailored for maximum impact.

There is enormous potential in saving energy through people if the strategy is right.

One example is high street food retailer. They designed their own campaign. For an investment of £20,000 they saved £200,000 in reduced electricity bills in less than 12 months. This sort of return is not untypical and compares very favourably with any hardware investment.

6. Focus A question often asked about campaigns is "Where do we focus our effort?" One extreme is to target every energy end-user. Sometimes this can be like spreading butter thinly over a football pitch. The other extreme is to focus on a small group of people whose job can 20

significantly influence energy use.

80

In most organisations it is not an "either...or"

80

scenario but a "both...and". The Pareto principle 20 People

Energy

4|P a g e

can be helpful in deciding where to target resources. This 80/20 rule suggested that 20% of staff control 80% of the energy and 80% of staff control the remaining 20% of the energy. In your organisation it may be 90/10 or 60/40.

Whatever the ratio it is important to identify who are key people and focus resources on them. In order to create energy saving as a cultural value and norm, it is worth applying mass publicity to raise awareness of the remainder. But the balance between the key players and others must be carefully struck. This fact recognised explicitly in the Energy Management System Standard, ISO50001, in the clause dealing with competence, training and awareness.

7. Feedback Mechanisms Once expectations are raised, most staff will make some effort. The next question is: "How are we doing?" Without an adequate monitoring system it will be impossible to answer this important question. 'Success breeds success' - but if success cannot be measured then everyone is in the dark. Not only will staff not know how they are doing, but it will be impossible to relay back to those funding the campaign any progress towards achieving the set energy/money target savings.

Typical Daily Load Profile Pre Campaign

Post Launch

Potential Savings

250

200

kWh

150

100

50

0 1:00

4:00

7:00

10:00

13:00

16:00

19:00

22:00

Time

8. Appropriate Timing An energy campaign is a change programme: motivating people to become energy savers and not energy wasters. But energy campaigns do not happen in isolation. Staff 5|P a g e

may have a number of other initiatives on their agenda e.g. organisation restructuring, health and safety training, fire safety, COSHH, customer care, etc.

If staff are hit with everything at once they may respond negatively.

Much of it

depends on their capacity and attitude. It is important to co-ordinate the timing of an energy campaign so that it gets the recognition it deserves. There is never an ideal time to run a campaign but there may be a good window of opportunity which minimises the risk of staff being overwhelmed.

9. Sensitivity about Morale Another factor affecting campaigns is overall staff morale. For example, it is not a good idea to launch an energy saving campaign the same week that redundancies are announced. Saving energy requires staff co-operation.

If staff feel aggrieved about a corporate issue they usually hit back at easy targets such as energy campaigns. Critical reactions to energy campaigns are usually symptomatic of ill feeling by employees towards the organisation. After all, who can logically argue against the case for energy efficiency? Even political parties of every persuasion agree that energy efficiency makes sense.

10. Investment and Maintenance Energy efficiency means getting more for less. It does not mean doing less or going without. It involves acting smarter by avoiding waste before it happens and detecting waste as soon as it happens and taking action. There are three areas which need addressing simultaneously: people, technology and information systems. All three areas are closely related and therefore the interface between them matters.

6|P a g e

For example, if a technical solution is applied, it is important to measure and verify the savings and this information needs to be fed back to the people who made the decision to invest.

In any energy management strategy it is important to invest in energy efficient plant, controls and buildings. It is also important to avoid waste in existing equipment. Some people invest to the point where they can go no further with technical solutions. They then turn to people solutions, partly because there is nowhere else to go and partly because any potential savings from investment can easily be wasted by end-users of energy if they are not sufficiently aware and motivated.

Sometimes people solutions are approached from another direction; there is not much capital available and because people solutions are low risk and relatively low cost, energy awareness is logical focus.

However, one of the problems with this approach is that end-users can have the attitude: "It's all very well you telling us to switch off lights and equipment - but what about all those draughts in our office and leaking taps that never get fixed when we report them? And what about some investment in a decent heating system?"

Energy is there to serve staff and enable them to reach their goals. The aim of energy management is to achieve this at minimum cost. But if the energy provided is not delivering the required comfort conditions, then how realistic is it to expect staff to be positive about reducing consumption?

So energy campaigns must not be an excuse to dodge the maintenance or investment elements of sound energy management strategy. The ideal situation is to run an energy campaign in parallel with an on-going capital programme. This communicates with 7|P a g e

end-users that it is not a one-way street. Also in parallel it is important to have an effective maintenance function which responds rapidly to users' needs.

11. Motivation Senior managers and budget holders will rightly judge the success of an energy campaign by how much money it saves. Their prime motivator is cost reduction. But if the truth is known the end-users of energy in most organisations are not particularly interested in saving energy to save their organisation money particularly if they see money wasted elsewhere.

Therefore it is vital to give clear positive messages to employees why it is important to save energy. These reasons usually have got to go beyond cost savings, and might include energy use in their own homes and how saving energy could make their job easier. The key to getting people on board is to relate energy efficiency to their own personal interests and values.

12. Maintaining Momentum Any campaign has a limited life. A key to maintaining momentum is to analyse existing culture, training, procedures and communication systems and build energy into existing mechanisms. For this reason a formal Energy Management System, compliant with ISO50001, will accelerate the process.

8|P a g e

CONCLUSION These twelve areas are where campaigns succeed or fail. It is tempting to think that by avoiding the errors success is guaranteed. Certainly it will take you out of reverse into neutral. But to get into overdrive you need to know your people and think creatively of what will work for them. A good starting point is to ask them.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Contact us: Drumbeat Energy Limited – Specialists in Energy Management Regent’s Place, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BT Telephone: 020 7078 4103 Email: info@drumbeatenergy.com Web: www.drumbeatenergy.com

9|P a g e