Reduction of electricity usage in Medway NHS Foundation Trust using persuasive technology: A review

Controlling energy consumption and carbon emission in the United Kingdom represents an ongoing challenge. The National Health Services’ (NHS), in the UK, annual spendings on energy are massive with a proportion of them being wasted energy. An initiative came aiming at reducing energy costs in Medway NHS Foundation Trust (MNFT) by inducing pro-environmental behaviour in the hospital with the aid of technology. Numerous researchers targeted human behaviour through the provision of feedback to reduce energy costs. This research focuses on electricity consumption in MNFT while considering designing a system that could be transferred to provide savings on other energy sources as well. Moreover, deploying a technology based feedback system that, with proper motivation, can introduce positive changes in MNFT staff pro-environmental behaviour. With hospitals being a good example of a busy environment, a key contribution would be monitoring occupancy and human dynamics in different areas of the hospital and analysing it against energy data. This paper reviews the literature around various motivational techniques for individuals to conserve energy in the building sector. This includes different types of feedback and addressing human psychology through goal setting, social comparison and so on. In conclusion, a hypothesis is set to address the energy problem in MNFT. The hypothesis involves the effect of using feedback technology on human behaviour and its impact on electricity consumption in MNFT.