Provision of targeted information

The aim of information instruments on energy efficiency is to inform consumers in a way that they can contribute to, and benefit from, improved efficiency simply through their purchasing or user behaviour.
Retail sales staff and other supply chain actors should also be involved in order not to send conflicting messages to consumers.

Worldwide implementation status
Policies to inform people about energy efficient technologies were implemented in several countries and are widespread all over the world. For example in earlier years, there were broad campaigns to promote environment-friendly purchases i.e. education for consumption in Mexico, consumption and environment in Denmark, eco-buyer campaign in Finland, green purchasing network in Japan, consumer pledge for sustainable consumption in Korea etc (OECD 2008). Furthermore there are already several calculation tools available like CO2online, Topten and information centres like ADEME (France) and UK EST.

Governance level
It can be an international, national and regional policy. The policy was mostly implemented on national or regional level.

Related sectors

• residential: Information instruments mostly address the residential sector.
• services: Another sectoral focus is the service sector.
• industrial: Another sectoral focus is the industrial sector.

The foci of this policy are residential and office appliances, and appliances in public buildings.

Related target groups

• User: The target groups are predominantly end-users.
• Manufacturer: Another important target group are manufacturers.
• Retail company
• Sales person

Direct beneficiaries

• User

  End-users directly benefit from these type of policies and measures. With targeted information (e.g. through information centres, databases, brochures) end-users have the chance to choose the cost effective and energy efficient solution and to make a contribution to the environment.

Indirect beneficiaries

• Manufacturer

  A successful provision of information with a corresponding effect on consumer choices can lead to competition among manufacturers to produce more energy-efficient models, which brings retailers to promote efficiency. Distributors and retailers may change the mix of products they stock and promote after the introduction of the information measure.

Relevant barriers

• Knowledge and information barriers: The main barrier addressed by these type of policies and measures is that the public is not informed enough about opportunities and benefits of energy efficiency in appliances. Information campaigns are also needed so that other instruments – including energy labels and financial incentive programmes – can work properly.
• Lack of interest and motivation in energy efficiency-improvement: There is a tendency that companies, organisations and households focus on their core activities only. An information campaign can have influence on the consumer. Is he or she convinced that energy-efficient appliances have several benefits this could be a motivation for manufacturers to invest in energy efficiency improvements.

Relevant incentives

• Saved energy costs: After a period of time, the upfront costs, which are normally higher for energy-efficient products compared to their less-efficient counterparts, are amortised due to lower running costs.
• Improved reputation: End-users and the environment benefit from energy-efficient solutions. Offering such solution underpins a company’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) goals. This may lead to competitive advantages.

Often the use of communicative instruments for motivation and information alone does not suffice. Given results of needs assessment and the mix of prevailing energy efficiency barriers, communicative instruments will need to be combined with other types of instruments. For example, if major economic barriers prevail preventing consumer action, different financial instruments may be necessary. These can also be seen as strong instruments to create awareness of the existence and benefits of very energy-efficient appliances. Measures may be needed to ensure availability of the energy-efficient appliances promoted by an information campaign in the shops and that consumers can identify them. This can be done e.g. by co-operation with manufacturers and retailers in the preparation of a campaign.
Energy labels are the best basis for information instruments, as they enable the easy communication of which the most energy-efficient appliances are and, equally important, enable consumers to identify them in the shop. On the other hand, to implement a successful energy label, information campaigns are necessary to inform consumers about the purpose and advantages of the labelling scheme.
Finally, when information and other policies and measures have been successful in shifting the market to higher energy efficiencies, minimum energy performance standards will be able to secure the energy efficiency levels achieved by removing the least efficient models from the market.

According to the wide range of different policies to provide information, it is difficult to explain the pre-conditions. All of these policies and measures have a commonality that they need actors to implement and control the policy and a funding scheme to finance the measure.

Agencies or other actors responsible for implementation
Agencies are necessary to implement the policy. There is a wide range of different policies with different possible actor constellations and responsible persons. Usually, public energy agencies play a main role. For this type of policy, however, local authorities, energy companies, NGOs, and other actors can be the implementing agency as well.

Funding
Funding schemes are necessary to finance the policy. Some policies, like small online campaigns can be implemented with low costs. On the other hand, large-scale information campaigns can be very cost-intensive.

Research, planning, targeting, using different tools, and sustaining the scheme over a reasonable period until results are achieved are the key ingredients in successful information campaigns (OECD 2008). After the background research is done, the best channels to reach the target groups can be identified. Key questions in the preparation of a campaign plan are: What kind of action by end users and or supply chain actors do I target? What (else) do they need to be successful with this action? What will be done in the campaign? Who is responsible for doing it? How much will it cost? How long will it take? What will I deliver? Effective campaigns typically operate following a strategic plan with the following steps: Setting the programme goals in line with policy goals, analysing the determinants of desired behavioural change, market segmentation and choice of target groups, choice of instruments, planning the organisation and management, risk analysis and back-up plan, programme testing and pilot campaign, planning the resources, and planning the monitoring and evaluation.

To implement a successful instrument it is important to include innovative elements. Examples of innovative elements are the use of new social medial such as Facebook, Twitter or Youtube (US), road-shows to supplement TV when not everyone has access to it (South Africa), shower head demonstration on beaches (South Africa), video contest (US), use of “social” workers (Cuba) etc. (Mikkonen et al., 2010). Applications for ‘smartphones’ may also be an innovative route to communicate information today and in the future.

Quantified target
Information tools can and should have a quantified target. However, it may not be feasible to set an energy savings target for them separately as part of a policy package. Rather, the target could be on indicators of success in reaching a high number of consumers and other market actors with the information and in recipients taking the desired energy efficiency action.

Co-operations of countries
Several countries worldwide have already introduced measures to provide information about energy efficiency. Therefore co-operations are helpful for countries, which plan to implement a campaign or similar measures. Furthermore, for example; online tools are often used by consumers from different countries at the same time, or are easy to translate and transfer.

Monitoring
Monitoring serves two objectives in campaign implementation. It provides feedback to campaign management to allow effective control. Monitoring can be used to provide the programme management information on the success of the campaign as well, to allow correct and prompt action if necessary to ensure that programme goals are achieved. Also the needs of the target group i.e. the consumers or other end-users can be monitored by asking them questions about how they perceive a campaign or tool, what energy efficiency action they took, and what barriers they experienced from it. This is typically done by conducting a feedback survey with campaign-related questions. These surveys are often based on telephone calls, postal questionnaires or web-based elements. An effective tool in helping to reach the programme goals is to establish performance indicators, which can be monitored during programme implementation.
Typical performance indicators for information instruments are the number of materials distributed, web-site visitors, event participants, TV campaign viewers, numbers of installations etc. (Mikkonen et al 2010).
An indicator for monitoring the change of energy efficiency levels in the market are sales figures per energy label category for a given type of appliance.

Evaluation
Two types of evaluation and evaluation objectives can be identified. Process evaluation is a systematic assessment of the campaign for the purpose of improving its design, its delivery, and the usefulness of the quality of services delivered to the consumer.
Impact evaluation examines the effect/outcome (changes of behaviour, energy savings and CO₂ emission reduction). It is important to give adequate consideration to the various aspects of evaluation already in the campaign or tool design.
However, there may – and should – be a package of instruments targeting energy efficiency of appliances (see above). Therefore, monitoring and evaluating the impact on energy savings via e.g. sales figures per energy label category will not only reflect the impact of the information instruments but also the labelling scheme itself. Whether it will be useful and possible to attribute shares of the overall impact to individual instruments such as an information campaign, will need to be assessed.

Relevant individual dynamics and side-effects

• Dynamic market transformation and/or innovation: A successful campaign has the chance to stimulate innovation within the appliance industry, if embedded in a wider and long-term package (with energy labelling, online tools, energy-efficient procurement initiatives, etc.). Regular monitoring is essential to guarantee lasting results and to redesign the campaign according to the target group and its behaviour.
• Avoiding lost opportunities: By promoting the most energy-efficient appliance on the market, information campaigns try to avoid that consumers buy energy-wasting appliances which would be a lost opportunity for saving energy.
• Minimising rebound effects: Information campaigns are made for consumers and focus on the energy consumption and the energy bill of end-users. Therefore, the provision of information can tackle the rebound effect (e.g. consumers buying larger appliances or using them more intensively, as they feel these are energy-efficient).
• Minimising snap-back effects: To minimize the snap back effect (e.g. that the market will snap back to a higher share of inefficient models) information tools (such as online databases, information centres) should be long-lasting. Information and motivation campaigns should be repeated to sustain their impact. Finally, making the market dynamic by a whole package of measures and securing energy efficiency achievements through introduction and periodic update of minimum energy performance standards will effectively minimise snap-back effects.
• Creating Spill-over effects: Positive spill-over effects can be realised with a successful programme. A campaign should be transferred to other political topics, other products etc.

Sustainability aspects
Other sustainability aspects and environmental impacts can (and should) be part of an information or education campaign e.g. health aspects or other resources such as water and detergents.

The following barriers are possible during the implementation of the policy:
Barriers for the implementation of these type of instruments are mainly the potential general weaknesses of information tools, including low levels of consumer awareness, criteria differences across campaigns and products, market competitions between different criteria. Obtaining funding for the implementation and continuation of an information tool, centre, or campaign can also be a major barrier.

The following measures can be undertaken to overcome the barriers:
Factors, which make campaigns more successful, are the combinations with other political measures like energy labelling schemes or financial incentives.

There are a lack of studies on the impact of awareness raising and information instruments. The scientific literature provides only little information on the potential of these activities. There are the general problems of (1) monitoring energy efficiency action taken by the target groups as a consequence of the information and (2) the difficulty of attributing energy savings to these instruments. That they are part of an overall package may explain this fact.
Therefore actual impacts or benefit-cost ratios are very difficult to assess in campaigns aiming to change appliance purchasing or usage behaviour. Changes in purchasing behaviour can increase the market share of the most energy-efficient appliances significantly. However, the impact of information instruments alone might be limited and may be improved a lot (up to more than 50 % of market share by the most energy-efficient classes of appliances) by temporal financial incentives in addition to information instruments.
Changes in user behaviour induced by intelligent information and feedback instruments can lead to significant energy savings of typically 10 to 15 % and can even be as high as up to approximately 20%. The savings stem from changes in energy conservation, lifestyle, awareness, low-cost action, and small investments (Mikkonen 2010).

The costs differ significantly depending on the size of the campaign, the duration and the target group.

Well designed and focused information and motivation instruments and campaigns can have good results and benefit-cost ratios at relatively low absolute costs. On the other hand, badly designed and implemented campaigns can cost a lot of money without good results. But even the impact of successful information campaigns can be enhanced with some financial incentive to buy the most energy-efficient appliance.
In effect, the benefit-cost ratio of such combined financial incentive and information schemes may be higher than that of information schemes alone, and the absolute amount of energy savings and net economic benefits as well.