Energy saving in UK FE colleges: The relative importance of the socio-economic groups and environmental attitudes of employees

Abstract

Sustainable development within the educational sector provides an important opportunity to conserve energy and resources. However, much of the current debate on energy efficiency focuses on new builds or technical measures to adapt established premises; the potential to harness the energy saving behaviour of employees is neglected. Previous research has shown that within the domestic environment, participants’ socio-economic characteristics and environmental attitudes are strongly linked to their propensity to make energy savings and promote energy conservation. The objectives of this research are to examine whether these same principles could be applied to a business environment, in particular the educational sector. This research focused on staff at a typical college of further education in the UK. Two questionnaires were used as the most appropriate research tool for this investigation. This analysis is based on data from 330 employees at a Further Educational College in Staffordshire. The results indicate that energy saving behaviour is important across a wide sector of variables, with home owner status, social altruism and home installation of green measures determining people's views and opinions. Although the results have made positive correlation the analysis also exposed the need for a major change in the patterns of human behaviour towards environmentally sustainable alignment. Data from staff who did not want to take part in the surveys was also analysed for motivations and reasons. Recommendations were made for further study in this sector.

Introduction

The linkage between fossil fuel use and global climate change is now universally accepted [1]. Global climate change is a highly complex problem which has the potential to impact every sphere of life, and if left unchecked, its impact on people and ecosystems could be drastic [2]. Among the several human activities that produce GHG's, the use of energy represents the largest of those emissions [3]. It has also been demonstrated that economic growth and increased standards of living has led to a dramatic increase in electricity demand over the past decades and this too has led to a growing concern over increasing GHG emissions [4]. The topics of the ever-increasing demand for energy and the need for carbon footprint reduction have resulted in global awareness of the importance of a) the adoption of renewables and of b) energy conservation) [5].

• Adoption of renewables

  Renewable energy resources include; solar, wind, geothermal, ground and air source heat pumps and biomass from crops, agricultural and industrial waste and municipal waste. Renewable energy sources are usually considered desirable sources as they are natural and can regenerate after harvesting and are carbon neutral [6]. Renewable energy development is of great importance from the point of view of long term energy supply security [7], and should be in the energy strategies for all countries [8]. The use of renewables for electrical generation results in significantly less GHG emissions compared with fossil fuel energy systems [9]. In fact, renewable energy resources are best practices possible today to stand against the increasing risk of global climate change [10]. As the fossil fuel reserves are exhausted the energy economy will change from a chemical to an electrical base [11]. Many have predicted a drastic shift towards renewable sources [12], and have also forecasted how this change may impact communities by leading to self-sufficiency for energy requirements at a local level [13].

• Energy conservation

Energy conservation can be achieved through both, the adoption of technical measures and the changing of behaviour [14]. Consequently, energy conservation and related environmental issues are of increasing interest for psychological research [15], [16]. In the UK, the IMechE (Institute of Mechanical Engineers), published an energy hierarchy [17]. This sets out technological opportunities and engineering-led solutions in the following themes;

• Reduction of energy use.

• Energy conservation – changing wasteful behaviour to reduce demand.

• Energy efficiency – using technology to reduce energy losses and eliminate energy waste.

• Exploitation of renewable, sustainable resources.

The European Commission has set out targets for 2030 that all countries and businesses within those countries should be aiming towards and these are outlined in the 2030 climate and energy framework. They are summarised below;

• At least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels).

• At least 27% share for renewable energy.

• At least 27% improvement in energy efficiency [18].

This has resulted in a fast-growing field of research that focuses either on the adaptation and resilience of buildings or the adaptation of their occupants, (and subsequent adoption of energy saving behaviour), to a changing climate [19]. This paper examines energy saving behaviour.