I’ve been working on energy efficiency for 20 years and care deeply about the issue, but this raises the question: Is it possible to get large parts of the population to engage — and stay engaged — in energy efficiency?
Witness, among other things, Google’s recent retreat from the home energy management space, and Microsoft’s pivot away from consumers toward building management. If even an Early Adopter strategy consultant and energy geek like me, who thinks the fate of the planet hangs in the balance, still doesn’t use the industry’s energy management solutions, what are we to do?
After an eye-opening three days at the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) annual meeting in mid-June, I’m convinced there are three possible answers:
1. Make it fun and fulfilling
2. Make it really, really easy
3. Make it mandatory