City Projects in Energy Efficiency and Conservation

Education

According to a recent study reviewing about 200 behavioral research papers, the most successful educational programs have the following characteristics:

A survey published in 2004 entitled "The Quality of Life in San Diego" and funded primarily by the California Public Utilities Commission shed light on some of the pitfalls of making false assumptions about a community's beliefs. San Diego had just faced an energy crisis from 2000 to 2001 and city staff had assumed that the survey's participants would think energy conservation was an important issue. On the contrary, less than half of those surveyed rated conservation of energy as very important. Since then, San Diego has run a public education campaign to change that. Click here for educational materials and example educational websites.

Ways to educate residents:

Changing Wasteful Habits: In the average home, 40% of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Add that all up, nationwide, it equals the annual output of 17 power plants.

Ways to educate businesses:

Ways to educate school children:

Develop curriculum materials that are specific to local conditions. This may include science experiments and science projects, math problems and information about climate change and energy sources. In conjunction with the curriculum, aid educators in arranging a field trip for the children to visit a local power plant and see first-hand how power is generated and distributed and why conservation is important.

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Read our Local Governments Best Practices Guide for ideas on how to educate employees.


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