How firms can use psychology to create successful energy conservation interventions; A literature review

Abstract

This working paper includes a large collection of psychological effects that may influence employees’ decisions to participate in corporate programs aimed at reducing energy consumption and CO2-emissions at their individual, household level. We find that companies are very much suitable to motivate individuals to save energy for the following four reasons Firms have a very close relationship to their employees and thus are able to reach out to a large number of households. Second, many firms operate on an international or even global level and can thus further scale up corporate energy saving programs. Third, firms offer an appealing social environment in which employees are embedded on a day-to-day basis. Based on this, social norms, the exchange of information and the general feeling of acting as a group rather than as an individual can all help to increase participation in energy saving activities. Fourth, companies can tackle both the uncertainty inherent to employees’ long term decisions, as well as the problem of high upfront costs for investments in long-term energy conservation through providing subsidies for energy conservation