The GAIA Behaviour Change Programme

The key to managing energy consumption.

We recognise that the key to managing your energy consumption is through your staff. Why is this?

1. Your employees control energy usage. Not your buildings, machines or equipment. Sustainable energy savings will only come when employees accept more efficient ways to consume.
2. Subsequent capital investments are more likely to achieve their expected return and be installed more cost efficiently if staff are supportive.

The GAIA behaviour change programme combines a change management model with a monitoring system that is underpinned by behavioural indicators. These components enable organisations to manage the change and measure the performance. This provides an excellent platform to direct focus and motivation. Furthermore, it provides a measurable way to report progress internally. The GAIA Behaviour Change Model has evolved from our implementation experience combined with input from our academic partners. This approach is unique to GAIA.

The programme drives the participants through a three stage change process: Assess, Launch, Recycle which identifies and resolves obstacles before moving on.

Assess | understanding the obstacles

In this stage we propose to conduct a range of survey activities, interviews and facilitation sessions to enable employee groups to identify the challenges and opportunities of achieving behaviour change within the organisation. For example  the assess stage  may include:

• ‘myth busting’ – every organisation has operational myths which may give rise to apparently good reasons for being unable to save energy or increase recycling. These myths evolve to become unquestionable rules that could be career limiting if broken
• cultural surveying – what are the drivers in your business, how are staff rewarded and recognised, how does the organisation view the environment strategic or compliance

Launch | making the change

Enabling sustainable change requires a clear vision with clarity on the opportunity ahead to get a  buy in from the organisation. At GAIA we creating a communication strategy using of the goals of the programme to achieve engagement. We also measure performance so it can see where savings are appearing using the GAIA web-based energy data platform. For example  the launch stage  may include:

• creating a compelling message – this must be more than saving money or helping environment. A compelling message must explain the positive ambitions of our organisations and enable staff to see ‘whats in it for them’
• finding connectors – ‘connectors’ are the life blood of your organisational culture. They are people of influence not seniority, who if identified and engaged can help your change programme flourish

Recycle | sustaining the change

Too often change programmes aren’t sustainable. This is not the case with GAIA. We know from experience how to make the change stick and embed best practise into the organisation. Many legislative rules want year on year reductions, so you have to find new ways to improve each year.

By the Recycle Stage the organisation is ‘consciously aware’ of its energy usage. It reviews its programme successes and failures and normally, by this time it would be ready to embark on a next step of The GAIA Path.

The combined processes of the GAIA Behaviour Change Programme and The GAIA Path  make up the The GAIA Methodology, which has resulted in our customers making very large savings. These savings are not one-offs but on-going because The GAIA Methodology fundamentally changes the way people behave around energy in the long-term.