Overheard @ BECC: How to Turn Energy-Wasting Behaviors into Energy-Saving Habits

What gets you to turn off the lights when you leave your bedroom?  Or buy those spiral, energy-saving CFLs for your lamps?  It’s probably a belief that you should do it, and a feeling that you want to.  How you got to that point of action – that moment when you decided to save energy – charged the fourth annual Behavior, Energy and Climate Change (BECC) Conference Nov. 14 – 17.

The BECC Conference was convened by the University of California’s Institute for Energy and Environment, Stanford University’s Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Despite the energy-insider hosts, the conference’s 250+ speakers shared best practices from outside the environmental nonprofit world on what motivates people to change their energy-saving behavior. Several Alliance staff members attended.  Their top takeaway: The energy community can only spread energy-saving habits by keeping the message simple. 

Speak Your Audience’s Language

The sold-out conference, which brought more than 700 participants to Sacramento, explored how individuals and organizations make decisions, and what leaders in the energy movement can do to “accelerate our transition to an energy-efficient and low carbon economy,” as said in a BECC release.

To really change behavior, you’ve got to tailor your message to your audience, said U.S. Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office Director Col. Robert “Brutus” Charette, Jr. in a presentation.  The Marine Corps created the Energy Office last year because Col. Charette demonstrated that combat effectiveness depends on energy efficiency.

To the armed forces, messages about saving the environment or money pale in comparison to messages about saving lives, Col. Charette said. In fact, one soldier gets wounded for every 50 water and fuel convoys across Afghanistan. The Energy Office now tells soldiers they are more likely to come home alive with tactics that save water and fuel.  Results?  The Marine Corps is set to halve the amount of fuel needed per marine by 2025.

Feature Your Desired Behavior

Take it from a psychology professor: Images of a behavior make observers more likely to do the behavior themselves, whether they see the behavior in their family members or on TV.  So, a commercial that shows people littering only makes littering more popular – even if the commercial shows someone crying about it, according to a presentation by Robert Cialdini, a psychology and marketing professor at Arizona State University. 

Cialdini recommends that organizations seeking to make energy-saving behaviors an everyday habit for the masses should broadcast images of people actively saving energy – and enjoying it. 

Calls for Collaboration

In addition to discussing the hundreds of studies and programs that get consumers to save energy, the BECC presenters called for greater collaboration between themselves and the organizations they represent.  Energy efficiency program leaders and researchers could collaborate through an online clearinghouse for best practices, said D&R International Market Researcher Steve Bickel in a Q&A after a presentation on incentives for energy-efficient appliances.  A central hub for the energy industry’s spokes could keep organizations on the same page as the industry seeks to make energy conservation more tangible and enticing to consumers, he added.

Although such a broad clearinghouse has yet to be created, you can view the presentations from the BECC conference now.