Under the project, a PhD graduate student from Warwick University will work with Honeywell Building Solutions and its customers over an 18 month period to design, develop and test behaviour change triggers, and to identify the most effective that should be incorporated into commercial energy efficiency programmes to drive reduction in energy consumption. Professor David Elmes, head of the Warwick Business School (WBS) Global Energy Research Network and Daniel Read, Professor of Behavioural Science, will supervise the research, supported by Honeywell Building Solutions, the Technology Strategy Board and the Economic and Social Research Council.
‘Building operators currently rely on posters, energy dashboards and educational workshops to encourage change in the behaviour of a building’s users. But could the effectiveness of those tools be improved, could we increase the sustainability of the change and are there other methods we should be implementing, underpinned by psychology?’ said Matthew Eastwood, managing director UK for Honeywell Building Solutions. ‘This important and practical research and development programme will help us to find the answers.’
David Elmes added, ‘Effort into new sources of affordable energy needs to be balanced with new thinking on how we use energy. We are excited to be part of this collaboration, which will see how research at WBS can hopefully be included in Honeywell’s services.’
