npower Business Solutions is aiming to deliver £1 billion in energy savings to its customers through the use of a carbon psychologist, who will help firms unlock the potential of behavioural change.
The company is looking to build on its success since acquiring energy management company RUMM in April 2015. In less than a year, the company says its carbon psychologist has delivered £26 million of savings for UK businesses by designing programmes to change behaviour, improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption.
The carbon psychologist works with employees to alter their energy habits and adopt more energy efficient ways of working.
Phil Griffiths, who was first appointed as low carbon psychologist at RUMM in 2013 before the consultancy was acquired by npower, uses psychology to understand how staff behave, and plans campaigns in order to make a positive impact.
“It often surprises businesses to find out that non-technical savings are usually greater than technical savings. Through learning about your energy habits, it is easy to make subtle, low-cost and effective changes to help keep down your energy bills,” he explained.
According to a spokeswoman for npower Business Solutions, there is no one behavioural project that the company recommends. However, there are certain areas that are usually addressed in most cases.
“We do find that attitude, perceived behavioural control, actual control and social norms are key drivers of behaviour change with reference to energy conservation,” she said.
“By understanding the constructs that make up behaviour we can ensure we have the best fit with regards to models, we can change or tweak a model or develop our own simply by adding or removing constructs. This enables us to create the best fit per environment and measure that model with data driven savings from meter reads.”
She added that perceived behavioural change – the perception of the ease or difficulty of a particular behaviour – and habit were commonly neglected areas in manufacturing in particular, with the company working to improve these elements of their customers’ businesses.
While npower is calling on firms to take advantage of its carbon psychologist, the company is also recommending firms negotiate with their energy suppliers before signing a new contract.
This follows research carried out on behalf of npower Business by YouGov, which found that nearly half (45%) of British SMEs surveyed saved £10,000 or less in the past year by negotiating. This potentially resulted in overall savings of £511 million across the sector in the past 12 months.
Despite the potential of businesses to save on their energy bills, the same research found that three quarters of SMEs say they don’t negotiate with their suppliers and, in particular, 70% don’t negotiate with their energy supplier before agreeing to a contract.
Philip Scholes, head of npower Business, said: “This research shows that businesses across the UK are reaping the dividends of negotiating their supplier contracts. However, not all firms are entering discussions with their provider, which could prove to be a missed opportunity in the long term.
“We’d encourage all British businesses to look at their supplier costs, and particularly their annual energy costs, to help improve their bottom line.”
