Strategies to Promote the Employees' Participation in Improving the Energy Performance of their Company

An appropriate energy-saving behavior of the employees can lead to a significant reduction in energy consumption and this result can be obtained free of cost for the company. According to our experience, most employees don't waste energy because of their negligence, rather for a lack of knowledge regarding the most appropriate behavior to keep. Moreover, many people hardly understand the importance of their individual behavior in order to obtain a considerable overall result. These attitudes can be changed by means of targeted communication and training campaigns. Communication, education and active involvement of employees are the main goals of the CNR Energy+ project, winner of the CNR Innovation Award in 2013. This paper reports the activities of this project, including: the creation of a website dedicated to employees and energy managers, an online training course on energy saving for employees, a network of weather stations, and much more. Key words: energy savings, rational energy use, climatic data, building occupant behavior, best practices, communication, training.