Effects of real-time eco-feedback and organizational network dynamics on energy efficient behavior in commercial buildings

• We examined the impact of energy-use feedback in a non-university commercial building.
• Organizational network energy-use feedback significantly impacted energy consumption.
• Individual level energy-use feedback did not significantly impact energy consumption.
• Occupants in organizational networks engaged with the system more than others.

Commercial buildings account for a significant portion of energy consumption and associated carbon emissions around the world. Consequently, many countries are instituting building energy efficiency policies to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of building operations. As building owners and operators act to address the challenge of increasing energy efficiency, occupant behavior modification programs are growing increasingly popular. Recent advances in energy monitoring and control technologies have enabled the development of eco-feedback systems that collect, process, and relay high resolution, real-time energy consumption information to help building occupants control their energy-use. These systems have extended research into the effects of high resolution eco-feedback on building occupant behavior and energy efficiency from residential to commercial building settings. However, little is understood about how organizational network dynamics impact user-engagement levels with such systems and how these network connections may impact the energy conservation behavior of individuals inside commercial buildings. In this paper, results are presented from a novel 9-week eco-feedback system study which demonstrates that organizational network dynamics can significantly impact energy conservation among commercial building occupants. Furthermore, it is shown that exposure to eco-feedback impacts building occupant energy conservation differently in commercial office buildings than it does in residential buildings.