Evaluating the impact of technological renovation and competition on energy consumption in the workplace

This study investigates the effect of two interventions aimed at reducing electricity consumption among branches of a large Italian bank. The first intervention consists in the technological renovation of 70 branch buildings through the installation of an automated energy management system. The second is an energy-saving competition that involved more than 500 branches for a year. Using two separate difference-in-differences estimations, we find that the technological renovation curbs electricity consumption by 15.8 percent overall, and by more than 25 percent outside the main work schedule. The behavioral intervention reduces electricity consumption, by around 6 percent outside the main work schedule, and by 2.4 percent overall, although not significantly so. The estimated cost-effectiveness ranges between 3.4 and 8.8 euro cents per kWh saved for the technological intervention, and 9.8 and 17.8 euro cents per kWh saved for the behavioral intervention. Our findings suggest that for both interventions, energy savings in the workplace are more easily obtained by reducing passive energy waste than through behavioral change during working hours.