Investigating Sustainability Stages in the Workplace

Prior research on stage-based, behavior-change models investigated intervention effectiveness for stress management, smoking cessation, weight management, adherence to lipid-lowering drugs and the like. Few sustainability centered studies identify people’s stage-based levels for energy use reduction or sustainability. In this paper, we investigate sustainability stages with measured behavior and eco-awareness scores based on Geller’s behavior change model. Eighty office employees were assigned to one of four experimental energy dashboard conditions: (a) no energy dashboard; (b) feedback only; (c) feedback and manual on/off controls; and (d) feedback, manual on/off controls, and on/off calendaring. We measured with pre-post surveys change in sustainability levels, energy efficiency discussions frequency, and organizational efforts to understand the work environment. We found that the dashboard with feedback, controls, and on/off calendaring were significantly associated with reported greater energy saving behavior compared to no energy dashboards, and dashboards with fewer features (i.e., feedback only; feedback and on/off control).