Educating employees about energy savings is crucial, not only for protecting the environment but also for reducing the company's energy costs. Initiating eco-responsible practices may seem simple, but it is often very beneficial. This article proposes strategies to motivate staff to adopt more rational energy consumption.
Raising awareness about energy saving: actions to be implemented in the company
Encourage ecological actions
Every action, no matter how small, plays a role. It is therefore essential to educate your team members and your customers by proposing easy-to-implement actions which, cumulatively over time, can have a considerable impact on reducing the energy consumed.
Heating management
According to Ademe, heating is responsible for around half of companies' energy consumption, making it a major area for encouraging energy savings. Here are some simple measures that can be adopted:
- Turn off the heating when ventilating the premises or during periods of unoccupancy;
- Decreasing radiator temperatures by one degree can result in up to 7% energy savings during the heating season;
- Keep doors closed to retain heat.
Lighting management
Still according to information from Ademe, a company could avoid up to 70% of its lighting costs. Here too, three practical tips:
- Maximize the use of daylight by reorganizing the workspace if necessary;
- Prefer the installation of LEDs over low energy consumption bulbs;
- Make sure to always turn off the lights when leaving a room. To encourage this practice, the company can place a sticker above switches.
The use of digital tools
Computer devices account for more than a fifth of businesses' electricity consumption. To reduce costs associated with electricity in the professional environment, encourage your teams to:
- Activate the “energy saving” options available on most equipment;
- Switch to sleep mode during brief breaks and turn off the device completely in case of prolonged absence;
- Favor the repair of existing devices or choose second-hand equipment;
- Organize inboxes regularly, reduce the frequency of emails sent and minimize attached attachments.
What Veolia is doing to raise awareness
Veolia combines 3 types of communication to carry out effective awareness campaigns that can be adapted to the type of building and the customer's needs:
Permanent: Standard and established media to directly influence users over the long term. It directly influences user behaviors through standard and established media, disseminates simple but effective information, and rewards users for their sustainable efforts every day to motivate continued results.
Dynamic: Displaying real-time data and related information for better tracking. It keeps users engaged by providing continuous feedback on their efforts, gives real-time visibility into energy indicators for occupants and visitors and empowers them to become stakeholders.
Event-based: Organizing occasional events to raise awareness. The aim of this communication is to raise awareness among users through planned events with clear environmental objectives.
Communicate well with employees
Communication is essential to promote energy savings effectively. First of all, it is advisable to share the company's intentions to reduce its energy consumption, detailing the reasons and the methods envisaged to achieve this. This initial approach can be enriched by regular monitoring which highlights current consumption and savings made. Motivating your teams by involving them in this process will further encourage them to get involved in this initiative.
To effectively encourage your employees to be energy efficient, get them actively involved. They can thus become ambassadors for energy saving among their less committed colleagues. There are several options for this.
The events
Organizing interactive workshops can transform work sessions into more engaging and entertaining experiences, for example using tools like the Climate Fresco to visualize and understand the impact of daily actions.
The idea box
Setting up a suggestion box can be an excellent strategy to get everyone involved in thinking about energy savings. This allows each individual to contribute to the overall strategy and propose new ideas to management. The objective is to encourage collective reflection and promote the know-how of employees who interact daily with the company and its processes.
Challenges
Consider organizing individual or collective challenges, which can take place at the level of different departments. Participants can focus on achieving personal goals in specific areas while contributing to a shared goal.
Support and recognition are important to maintain motivation during these competitions, particularly through rewards when the set goals are achieved. Constant communication is also fundamental to keeping engagement high throughout the challenge.
Raising awareness of energy saving in businesses: energy management
What is this ?
Energy administration encompasses various technical and organizational methods that aim to reduce the energy consumption of a system while maintaining or improving the quality of the service provided. Adopting an energy management strategy within a business can lead to energy savings without requiring major renovations.
The initial step for an effective strategy is to fully understand the company's real estate assets and its energy consumption. With an Energy Management System (EMS), energy managers can start by spotting excess consumption and recommend adjustments to improve the efficiency of appliances and technical systems.
Thanks to their interventions on all real estate assets, the company can see its energy bill significantly reduced by optimizing each item of expenditure.
Constant monitoring via an EMS makes it possible to quickly identify and react to any excessive consumption. This approach can result in an average energy saving of 15% without requiring additional work.
The job of energy manager
Whether internally in a company or a public administration, or as an external consultant, the Energy Manager plays a key role in executing the energy saving strategy. Its task is to supervise, evaluate, recommend and implement action plans aimed at reducing energy consumption within a group of properties.
This energy specialist, also known as a flow economizer, uses energy management systems to examine the consumption of various properties and identify savings opportunities. He plays an advisory and coordinator role, orchestrating the efforts of the teams both internally and in the field to guarantee the effective application of measures. In addition, it is responsible for measuring energy savings achieved based on proven calculation methods, such as the Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP).
Go further with the energy renovation of buildings
Energy retrofit aims to reduce a structure's energy consumption by making improvements such as insulation, updating heating and ventilation systems, or modifying specific industrial processes. It may be considered after a energy audit making it possible to evaluate the improvements to be made, and financed by state aid such as CEE (energy savings certificates).
