Prioritising green energy solutions

Challenge

Although many companies actively contribute to reducing climate change, the number of companies engaged in these efforts is far from all.

Studies show that attitudes on the issue of the climate among companies’ decision-makers play a significant role in relation to how committed companies are to acting sustainably. (Studies do not show, however, how and to what extent decision-makers’ personal beliefs influence a company’s energy-related investment and optimisation patterns.)

Surveys show that up to 1/3 of the population are climate change sceptics, and there is widespread hesitation among both companies and consumers to make green choices. Do personal convictions influence decision-makers in relation to the actions of their companies? If so, what does it take to make decision-makers give greater priority to green solutions, such as energy savings, utilising the potential for flexibility, and investing in green energy technologies? This project will investigate these questions.

Solution idea

SEAS-NVE, GREEN INNOVATION GROUP, and HOFOR will, together with the Alexandra Institute, investigate how decision-makers are involved in making green choices on behalf of their companies or residential properties. This knowledge will be used to investigate and design guidelines on how to best communicate with climate-sceptic and climate-hesitant decision-makers and get them to invest in green energy solutions.

This project has been initiated and motivated by partners SEAS-NVE, GREEN INNOVATION GROUP and HOFOR. All three companies provide solutions that make it cheaper and easier for companies and residential properties to reduce energy consumption and increase their potential for flexibility.

Despite ample publicity given to climate issues in Danish and international media, these companies continue to find that a considerable group of potential customers is difficult to reach. Based on the feedback they have received so far from these potential customers, they are operating under the assumption that decision-makers are either climate skeptics or have some other reason not to prioritise green initiatives.

As a result, SEAS-NVE, GREEN INNOVATION GROUP and HOFOR miss out on growth potentials and energy efficiency improvements, in view of the fact that there is a group of potential customers/partners that they cannot convince to prioritise green energy initiatives.

The assumption could be that this is because new solutions are more expensive or more cumbersome, but SEAS-NVE, GREEN INNOVATION GROUP and HOFOR have found that this is far from always the case, so there must be something more that underlies these potential customers’ restraint. SEAS-NVE, GREEN INNOVATION GROUP and HOFOR therefore wish to collaborate with the Alexandra Institute to carry out an analysis of the mechanisms underlying the decision-making behaviour of these companies and residential properties. The partners want a complete picture and a complex understanding of what makes companies opt in or out of investing in green energy investments and initiatives.

Partners