The CarbonCulture Platform was introduced to UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) head office at Whitehall to provide a number of user engagement tools which encourage sustainable behaviours amongst its 1,000 staff. The platform provides a user-facing communications channel, incentive mechanisms and practical examples of individual interventions.
Figure 1: CarbonCulture dashboard (CarbonCulture, 2012)
The ‘OK Commuter’ application focusses on employee commuting; allowing users to record what transport type they took to work, through creative description. The outcome is a calendar entry and a notification on the activity feed (Figure 2). It is designed to be fun and simple to use — the journey ‘narrative’ is limited to 42 characters, and is intended to add a sense of community, with individual staff members able to view how their colleagues described their commute, and view statistics for how many journeys by each mode of transport were made. Presenting the information in this format humanises what can be a technical and intangible concept (i.e. transport-related CO2 emissions) and facilitates a better understanding of the issue.
Figure 2: OK Commuter dashboard (CarbonCulture, 2012)
While the application allows an engaging method to address CO2 emissions from business commuting and travel, the location and infrastructure in which it is implemented will impact upon the potential and/or level of change which can be expected. For example, the DECC pilot was focussed on a London city-centre office where many staff are only able to travel by public transport due to the distance from home, and few people drive due to external factors such as congestion and parking costs.
However, benefits were still observed from the tool in this setting. The action of recording the journey each morning, and the visualisation of the past four weeks’ travel can prompt different decisions and behaviour change in commuting and wider personal travel decisions. For example, if an individual has a few options to choose from with one of them being healthier, cheaper or more environmentally preferable e.g. taking a tube or bus for a short journey or walking instead.
In addition to these influences on the decision making process, ego plays a role as a behaviour influence in a public facing platform such as CarbonCulture. Individuals may feel a sense of personal pride when logging a ‘sustainable journey’, particularly in difficult weather conditions (e.g. if they walk or cycle in rain or the snow) and this has the potential to drive competition between staff.
The pilot period of CarbonCulture achieved high levels of engagement when compared to existing sustainability engagement programmes, wider generic user engagement programmes, or general-purpose web based applications. Over 40% of staff voluntarily used the platform, with 2229 journeys logged within the OK Commuter app alone; averaging over 240 individual uses per week over the pilot period (CarbonCulture, 2012). An average of 48 users logged journeys each day. Qualitative data was also gathered, with a selection of feedback quotes captured in Figure 3:
Figure 3: Collection of quotes adapted from (CarbonCulture, 2012)
The initial version of OK Commuter focused on establishing DECC’s baseline commuting behaviours; however it is under further development to add a mechanism for capturing carbon savings. Additional concerns such as health and safety will also be considered in future versions with features such as ‘safe’ cycle routes and group cycle events.
The CarbonCulture feasibility study created opportunities to share learning with wider audiences; a number of collaborative projects and further development of tool are already underway. The platform has been deployed across eight Whitehall departments including Number 10 Downing Street, and is now being made available to other office environments.