PromotingEnergy-effective Practices at McGill

Wissam Shaar, Partner

PulseCheck

McGill Business Consulting Group1001 Sherbrooke St. West, Suite 361Montréal, QC, Canada, H3A 1G5Tel. (514) 398‐5846www.mbcg.com

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Agenda

• Project Overview

• The Team’s Methodology

• Project Findings

• Guidelines and Recommendations

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Pulse Check – Project Overview

• Purpose

• To present a set of behaviour-related tools to compliment

the Pulse Dashboard in energy conservation at McGill

• Three groups of stakeholders

• Students

• Academic Staff

• Administration and Support Staff

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Methodology – Research and Data Collection

• Research and literature review

• What other universities do, what worked, what didn’t

• Theories around behavioural change, social marketing

• Data collection

• Meetings with representatives of the three groups

• Survey to get students’ feedback

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Planned Tasks Actual

Meet representatives of FOD and University Services Met with Jim Nicell, Chuck Adler

Meet with Pulse Energy representatives Skype call with Brent Bowker

Meet with building directors Met with Christine Boynton, Richard Beaulieu

Meet with professors Met with Professors Fabry, Brown, Pollack, Ryan, Chauvin

Meet with district supervisors Met with Denny Tambasco

Meet with NCS representatives Met with Gary Bernstein

Meet with HR representatives Could not be done due to strike

Meet with SPF project groups Met with EnGage, Shut Your Sash, Campus Swaps

Methodology – People Interviewed

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• Findings that apply to all three stakeholders

• Negative impacts of technological fixes

• “Feedback + prompting” an effective combination

• Incentives and Disincentives also effective methods

• Findings related to students

• Excited and eager to learn about sustainability

• Feeling helpless (there’s little they can do)

• Best engaged through social media tools

Pulse Check – Project Findings

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• Findings related to professors

• Occupied/overloaded with academic responsibilities

• No time for “extra” sustainability initiatives

• Volunteer building directors feel left out with an

“unimportant role”

• Findings related to admin and support staff

• Central billing and budgeting for energy

• There’s room for increasing awareness about Pulse

Dashboard and how it can help in energy savings

Pulse Check – Project Findings (Cont’d)

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Pulse Check – Recommendations

• Recommendations related to students

• Provide additional means to interact and learn about

energy saving (online, events, roundtables)

• Identify “green enthusiasts” and help them promote

energy saving practises among other students

• Example: Promote the SPF program specifically among “green”

student clubs and groups

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Pulse Check – Recommendations (Cont’d)

• Recommendations related to professors

• Incorporate energy conservation concepts into

curriculum and research

• Example: include energy conservation cases and topics into

existing course material

• Include a “mandatory” energy-awareness component in

training courses for professors

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Pulse Check – Recommendations (Cont’d)

• Recommendations related to administration and support staff

• NCS to include the dashboard in McGill’s mobile app

• Office of Sustainability to communicate with students

(give them a voice) and better inform them

• Office of Sustainability to play a central role in linking

various departments (TLS, FOD, Campus planning)

• Example: Reviving the role of volunteer building directors

around energy conservation

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Thank You

Questions?