Nudging occupant behaviour for energy efficiency in hospitals
Student name: Mr Puneet Sharma
Guide: Mr Sapan Thapar
Year of completion: 2018
Host Organisation: Smart Joules Pvt. Ltd.
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Arjun P Gupta
Abstract: Hospitals buildings have complex and distinctive energy demands so understanding end-use energy use from occupant perspective is important to decide the significance of behaviour and basic operational modifications as plan of action to save energy in separate key hospital areas. Technology adoption and behavior change go-hand-in- hand for an effective strategy. The key stakeholders in a hospital setup consists of: the organisation/hospital, hospital employees and patients. With reference to several case studies across globe, this deliverable has provided insights on success factors and commonly encountered barriers to campaigns solely focusing on achieving energy efficiency through behavior change. The sustainable behavioural program for hospital employees must focus on improved patient comfort, improved working culture revolving around energy efficiency along with reduced energy costs and carbon emissions without any compromise in quality of services provided. The intervention encourages simple energy saving actions to be taken by employees such as turning off unused medical and non- medical equipments, lights out when not needed instead using natural light and closing doors, windows when heating /cooling is on for increased energy savings and carbon emission reduction. Employing various communication tools such as emails, website, energy displays, posters, prompts, texts and deploying engagement techniques such as feedback, competition, rewards have been suggested for nudging occupant energy behaviour. Organisational culture is often emphasized as one of the highlighted challenges in nudging occupant energy consuming practices. For encouraging sustained pro-environmental behaviours: technological change, organisational change and behavioural change should go hand in hand, leading to a path towards achieving energy efficiency. The literature review finds a strong case for using nudging to promote pro environmental behavior in energy consumption, waste and resource efficiency.
Keywords: Energy Efficiency, Nudge, Occupant behaviour, Pro environmental behaviour, Behavioural change
