Cooperative Energy Usage Report
Published: 7 February 2024
This briefing paper is based on an exploratory study in collaboration with the Crichton Trust exploring modes of incentivising cooperative energy use in the shared office environment
Exploring modes of incentivising cooperative energy use in the shared office environment
Over the past three years, global energy prices have undergone large increases across the board. This has plunged many people and organisations into fuel poverty, and energy-saving measures have become a key concern for individuals, businesses and organisations managing homes and buildings (UNEP, 2022; Stewart and Bolton 2024; BloombergNEF, 2022). The shared office is a unique environment where the users of the space are not always directly impacted by raised energy prices, and so efforts to reduce energy use need to go beyond individual financial and climate concerns.
Incentivising prosocial behaviour is a key focus of research in the social sciences. Disciplines such as behavioural economics have been successfully applied to optimise the creation, maintenance and usage of public goods and shared commons. Public health, environmental and socioeconomic problems are popular targets for behavioural economic researchers owing to the significant leverage small changes can have on aggregate level changes.
This Cooperative Energy Usage exploratory briefing note is concerned with different methods for incentivising voluntary energy efficiency in the shared office and community environments. We are interested in research opportunities to unearth and test different ways of incentivising cooperative energy use along with gathering insights on types of communities, user personas, and environments in which different schemes work best.
Key Questions
To address the issues raised above, the following questions are important to address:
- What are some of the most successful modes of incentivising cooperative behaviour and collective decision-making in shared energy network environments?
- What challenges and opportunities arise as shared energy efficiency and incentivisation plans are introduced (e.g., free riding, tragedy of the commons etc)?
- What are the specific local concerns which need to be taken into account when implementing new incentivisation initiatives with respect to shared energy usage?
- How can the levers and drivers for altruistic behaviour, specific to climate topics, be effective in a shared office environment?
- What role can a shared office / community space manager play, as opposed to company leadership and individual line-management, in promoting and encouraging climate-friendly energy behaviour? This kind of cooperative energy usage research allows for deeper insight for organisations managing rising costs – both financially and environmentally – with a view to implementing more effective incentivisation programmes for money-saving and positive climate impact.
First published: 7 February 2024