Citizen engagement for sustainable consumption. Key to improve cities’ performance
There is a fair debate within the sustainability community about whether technology is a villain or a hero in the fight for a more sustainable world. Extremes aside, two conclusions seem to be more consensual: technological development can sometimes do more harm than good and facilitate inconsequential use of natural resources (for instance in the so called “rebound effect”); but, on the other hand, it is the only possible way to disrupt our current production and consumption models and eventually put us in a more sustainable path.
That said, it has become increasingly clear that the only way towards a more sustainable society passes necessarily by a cultural and behavioral shift towards new paradigms where consumption is not praised as the main source of happiness or as the solution for all our economic problems. Opower is a great example of how such new paradigm can slowly start to be pushed through. It is a company focused on putting together data analytics and behavioral science in order to foster energy savings purely by behavioral change. Their main catch, as presented in the video above, is that informing consumers of their performance in relation to their peers is powerful tool drive behavioral change.
Opower was recently acquired by the tech giant Oracle, and has partnered already with over 100 utility companies, including some big players in the market like PG&E, Exelon and National Grid. It claims to have helped clients to save more than 11.5 TWh of energy, which corresponds to US$ 1.12 billion in energy bills, and almost 6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Their approach on citizen engagement could certainly be helpful for cities like New York that has committed to the goal of achieving an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2050. If used wisely, technology can actually be an important ally for better managing our natural resources.
