Low carbon behaviour change: The £300 million opportunity

UK workplaces are missing out on more than £300 million a year in savings that could be achieved through encouraging employees to adopt behaviours that reduce energy use and waste.  

This report looks at how to overcome some of the biggest barriers and most common pitfalls in delivering a successful behaviour change campaign.

Publication date: 19/12/2013

In the UK there is a £300 million opportunity in encouraging employees to adopt greener behaviours, which would result in saving over six million tonnes of carbon. However, a good programme needs to bring together technical expertise with sound behavioural psychology, marketing expertise, and a profound understanding of organisational change.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution, what works tremendously well in one organisation may not work at all in another. But there are a few design principles that underpin all successful behaviour change programmes.

The Carbon Trust has over a decade of experience in helping thousands of public and private sector organisations to cut carbon and become more sustainable. This experience suggests that with an investment of between 1-2% of energy spend in an effective employee engagement campaign, many organisations can save up to 10% on energy costs.

Behaviour change has long been recognised as a low-cost, high-impact way of reducing an organisation’s costs. But a number of organisations struggle to engage staff effectively in order to deliver long term energy and carbon savings.

Our collective understanding of what works and doesn’t work in low carbon behaviour change has advanced significantly, and continues to develop. This report looks at how to overcome some of the biggest barriers and most common pitfalls in delivering a successful behaviour change campaign.

Find out more about our support for organisational engagement and behaviour change programmes

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