The mayor and the cleaning lady worked together to save energy at a Hungarian municipality in the framework of a European campaign
#MoveTheDate Solutions
Personal / Community: Community project
Energy sub-category: Legislation, regulation, mandate
Description: The EU funded campaign ran between 1 March 2016 and 28 February 2017, with 19 public buildings and over 2000 employees participating from Hungary. Its most important aim was to reduce the participating buildings' overall energy consumption by changing the employees' everyday practices and behaviour. The national partner was GreenDependent Institute, which provided the expertise and materials, as well as coordinated and organised the Hungarian events. The buildings were awarded in three categories: highest energy savings, best campaign and best energy saving action plan. The best buildings in each category did not only receive valuable presents but also gained chance to share their good examples with the other participants. The Mayor's Office in Pázmánd saved the most energy with - 13.2 %. Also as part of the event, GreenDependent Institute presented the preliminary results of the pre-campaign and post-campaign surveys filled in by the Hungarian employees. The analysis showed that the number of those who always or often carry out the basic office energy saving practices (e.g. switching off the lights and other electronic appliances, turning down the heating at the end of the day) has increased - in some cases considerably. Moreover, many of the employees started to do them as routine activities not only in the office but also at home, and energy saving has become a regular topic both in the workplace and among family members. 89 % of the Hungarian respondents stated that they will be able to continue the energy saving practices after the end of the competition as well.
Website about this solution: https://saveatwork.eu/
Why I love this solution: Because... save@work facilitated change in public offices, helped create behaviour change towards more sustainable energy use, and even more so helped build employee groups - involving people from mayors to cleaners - who can take the change forward.