On the 24th of April, the City of Malmö hosted their regional REBUS Mid-term event to inform the audience of the progress that the REBUS project has made, as well as to offer tools for developing the region’s ability to work with their own behavioural changes when it comes to energy efficiency. Thus, the title of the seminar was Ändra beteende för klimatet (Change Behaviour for the Climate).
There was a considerable amount of interest and excitement at the event, with 70 participants attending. This included the Swedish Local Stakeholder Group (LSG), contractors and entrepreneurs, employees in real-estate, and some agents working with energy efficiency in other terms, either in Malmö, other communities and private companies.
The seminar began with an introduction from Jens Ringö from Malmö, who briefly explained why energy saving behavioural changes are important and why the EU is interested in mitigating energy within this realm. He also explained the overall topics surrounding our Interreg Europe REBUS project.
Following Ringö’s introduction, Psychologist Niklas Laninge discussed the topic of nudging, and how one can positively influence people to change behaviour in a variety of ways. As a general example, Niklas told the audience about the tests conducted at the urinals of the men’s restroom at the Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam). By placing small stickers in the urinals with encouraging messages, the airport staff mitigated the ‘’splash’’ levels by over 70%, resulting in less mess and therefore fewer resources needed during clean-up.
Niklas also asked the audience to brainstorm innovative and creative ways of mitigating energy consumption, which participants were to write down during the break. The top three suggestions were awarded with his latest book.
Following his presentation on behavioural change, Niklas posed to the audience a framework to be able to see when energy consumption behavioural change design is appropriate for the audience to take advantage of.
Jenny Groothuis then presented the REBUS Action Plan of Malmö, thoroughly explaining the main activities outlined in the action plan. Lars Höglund separately presented the educational material for those working with water management, which is now tested at one school (Bulltofta skolan); seven additional schools have announced that they will work with the material and include it in their energy efficiency school programmes.
Gustav Lindblad continued the REBUS Mid-term event with his discussion on energy surveys, which have been produced within the REBUS Action Plan for Malmö. This has also been tested in the Mazetti building in the REBUS partner region of Florence, Italy, a good practice example that has demonstrated several advantages of surveying. This is now undergoing further review and will be tested again and implemented in the City of Malmö.
Last but not least in the series of interesting presenters came Thomas Augustsson of the City of Helsingborg. Thomas is a part of the REBUS LSG, as well as a member of the Environmental Board at the City of Helsingborg. He talked about the Environmental Programme of Helsingborg, including successful strategies, operational and energy steering, and of course, how to be successful on the path to behavioural change for energy efficiency.
