A socio-technical approach to improving retail energy efficiency behaviours

Sian Christina,Patrick Waterson,Andrew Dainty,Kevin Daniels

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2014.08.003

Sian Christina, Patrick Waterson + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2014.08.003

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Abstract

In recent years, the UK retail sector has made a significant contribution to societal responses on carbon reduction. We provide a novel and timely examination of environmental sustainability from a systems perspective, exploring how energy-related technologies and strategies are incorporated into organisational life. We use a longitudinal case study approach, looking at behavioural energy efficiency from within one of the UK's leading retailers. Our data covers a two-year period, with qualitative data from a total of 131 participants gathered using phased interviews and focus groups. We introduce an adapted socio-technical framework approach in order to describe an existing organisational behavioural strategy to support retail energy efficiency. Our findings point to crucial socio-technical and goal-setting factors which both impede and/or enable energy efficient behaviours, these include: tensions linked to store level perception of energy management goals; an emphasis on the importance of technology for underpinning change processes; and, the need for feedback and incentives to support the completion of energy-related tasks. We also describe the evolution of a practical operational intervention designed to address issues raised in our findings. Our study provides fresh insights into how sustainable workplace behaviours can be achieved and sustained over time. Secondly, we discuss in detail a set of issues arising from goal conflict in the workplace; these include the development of a practical energy management strategy to facilitate secondary organisational goals through job redesign.

Highlights

Energy management has become a key part of organisational life across all industries and is proving an area of increasing interest as a response to carbon reduction targets (DEFRA, 2006)
We set out to improve performance against energy goals by increasing the chances of the energy task being completed in a multiple goal environment through alignment, rather than trying to raise the relative importance of the energy goal against other store goals
We suggest that some motivators could act as moderators to task achievement in this context to determine whether the job design intervention will effectively impact the performance goal

Summary

Introduction

Energy management has become a key part of organisational life across all industries and is proving an area of increasing interest as a response to carbon reduction targets (DEFRA, 2006). This interest is reflected in the increase in Corporate Responsibility carbon commitments amongst UK retailers which detail far-reaching carbon reduction targets and strategies (Gouldson and Sullivan, 2012). The study explores energy management from a socio-technical perspective, and considers inter-relationships that have rarely been discussed together in a workplace environmental study. In this study ‘energy’ refers to water and utilities, but predominately electricity

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Conclusion