Abstract
Buildings are estimated to account for 40% of the EU’s energy consumption. Thus, there is a growing body of research on the behaviors of building users and what influences these. While there has been substantial research on energy saving behavior in households, far less research has focused on the context of non-residential buildings. We report on a study to understand energy saving behaviors in the context of workplace, drawing on the theory of planned behavior. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed on data from employees in a Norwegian organization (N = 251). We find energy concern to be a significant predictor of energy saving behavior at work, and that this relationship is partially mediated by perceived behavioral control. In addition, routinization of energy saving behavior seem to be of great importance for engaging in such behavior also at work.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bergesen, B., Groth, L.H., Langseth, B., Magnussen, I.H., Spilde, D., Toutain, J.E.W.: Energibruksrapporten 2012 – Energibruk i husholdninger. Report no. 30/2012, NVE, Oslo (2012). ISBN 978-82-410-0818-4
European Commission: The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/buildings_performance_factsheet.pdf
Chalmers, P.: Climate change: implications for buildings. key findings from the intergovernmental panel on climate change fifth assessment report. BPIE (2014). http://bpie.eu/publication/climate-change-implications-for-buildings/
Lucon, O., et al.: Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change. In: Edenhofer, O., et al. (eds.) Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2014)
Staddon, S.C., Cycil, C., Goulden, M., Leygue, C., Spence, A.: Intervening to change behavior and save energy in the workplace: a systematic review of available evidence. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 17, 30–51 (2016)
NVE: Analyse av energibruk i yrkesbygg. Report no. 24/2016, NVE, Oslo (2016). ISBN 978-82-410-1215-0
Lopes, M.A.R., Antunes, C.H., Martins, N.: Energy behaviours as promoters of energy efficiency: a 21st century review. Renew. Sust. Energy Rev. 16(6), 4095–4104 (2012)
Mahdavi, A., Tahmasebi, F., Kayalar, M.: Prediction of plug loads in office buildings: simplified and probabalistic methods. Energy Build. 129, 322–329 (2016)
Wang, Q., Augenbroe, G., Kim, J.-H., Gu, L.: Meta-modeling of occupancy variables and analysis of their impact on energy outcomes of office buildings. Appl. Energy 174, 166–180 (2016)
Sonta, A.J., Simmons, P.E., Jain, R.K.: Understanding building occupant activities at scale: an integrated knowledge-based data-driven approach. Adv. Eng. Inform. 37, 1–13 (2018)
Chen, C.-F., Knight, K.: Energy at work: social psychological factors affecting energy conservation intentions within Chinese electric power companies. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 4, 23–31 (2014)
Wells, V.K., Taheri, B., Gregory-Smith, D., Manika, D.: The role of generativity and attitudes on employees home and workplace water and energy saving behaviors. Tour. Manag. 56, 63–74 (2016)
Zierler, R., Wehrmeyer, W., Murphy, R.: The energy efficiency behavior of individuals in large organisations: a case study of a major UK infrastructure operator. Energy Policy 104, 38–49 (2017)
Tetlow, R.M., van Dronkelaar, C., Beaman, C.P., Elmualim, A.A., Couling, K.: Identifying behavioral predictors of small power electricity consumption in office buildings. Build. Environ. 92, 75–85 (2015)
Ajzen, I.: The theory of planned behavior. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 50, 179–211 (1991)
Madden, T.J., Ellen, P.S., Ajzen, I.: A comparison of the theory of planned behavior and the theory of reasoned action. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 18(1), 3–9 (1992)
Zhang, Y., Wei, Y., Zhou, G.: Promoting firm’s energy saving behavior: the role of institutional pressures, top management support and financial slack. Energy Policy 115, 230–238 (2018)
Yuriev, A., Boiral, O., Francoeur, V., Paillé, P.: Overcoming barriers to pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace: a systematic review. J. Clean. Prod. 182, 379–394 (2018)
Littleford, C., Ryley, T.J., Firth, S.K.: Context, control and the spillover of energy use behaviours between office and home settings. J. Environ. Psychol. 40, 157–166 (2014)
Matthies, E., Kastner, I., Klesse, A., Wagner, H.-J.: High reduction potentials for energy user behaviour in public buildings: how much can psychology-based interventions achieve? J. Environ. Stud. Sci. 1, 241–255 (2011)
Yun, G.Y., Kim, H., Kim, J.T.: Effects of occupancy and lighting use patterns on lighting energy consumption. Energy Build. 46, 152–158 (2012)
Frederiks, E.R., Stenner, K., Hobmann, E.V.: The socio-demographic and psychological predictors of residential energy consumption: a comprehensive review. Energies 8, 573–609 (2015)
Gifford, R., Nilsson, A.: Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: a review. Int. J. Psychol. 49(3), 141–157 (2014)
Gardner, B., Abraham, C., Lally, P., de Bruijn, G.-J.: Towards parsimony in habit measurement: testing the convergent and predictive validity of an automaticity subscale of the self-report habit index. Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 9, 102–114 (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Reegård, K., Drøivoldsmo, A. (2020). An Empirical Investigation of Factors Influencing Energy Saving Behavior in the Workplace. In: Karwowski, W., Goonetilleke, R., Xiong, S., Goossens, R., Murata, A. (eds) Advances in Physical, Social & Occupational Ergonomics. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1215. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51549-2_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51549-2_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-51548-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-51549-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)