Prompting Employees at the Municipality of Eindhoven to Save Energy by Turning off the Lights
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2022-07-08
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en
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Abstract
In the Netherlands, companies waste unnecessary energy by leaving lights on, leading to carbon
dioxide emissions that perpetuate global warming and negative consequences for all life.
Organisations must change their energy consumption behaviour to reduce these emissions. The
present research aimed to encourage employees at the Municipality of Eindhoven to switch off
lights when leaving meeting rooms to save energy. First, a pre-intervention survey (N =179)
investigated important socio-psychological factors influencing employees’ light switching
behaviour. Results indicated that this behaviour is mainly influenced by injunctive norms, habits,
perceived ease of saving energy, attitudes and organisational support toward energy conservation.
The second part of the study involved designing a visual prompt intervention to target the factors
identified in the survey in order to influence employees to switch off lights when leaving meeting
rooms. To test the effectiveness of the intervention, data was collected in two ways: observations of
employees’ behaviour when leaving meeting rooms (N = 114) and self-reported behaviour from
employees via a post-intervention survey (N = 23). This survey also investigated if the factors
targeted by the intervention were impacted. Results indicated that the visual prompt intervention
successfully increased the frequency of lights switched off. Employees’ did not report switching off
more lights compared to before the intervention, but they did indicate increased perceptions of
organisational support. The findings are considered with regard to several notable limitations of the
study, and suggestions are made for future research in the area. Finally, theoretical and practical
implications are discussed.
Keywords: energy-saving, injunctive norms, habits, perceived ease of saving energy,
organisational support, visual prompt
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen