How to Use Behavioral Science to Encourage Energy Efficiency

I’d meant to put this up earlier, but I wanted to post this TED talk from Alex Laskey, the co-founder of the energy efficiency company  Opower. I’ve written about Opower a few times, most recently in this piece about the use of big data to reduce energy waste. What sets Opower is the way they meld psychology with technology. That was true from the very beginning of the company, back when it used peer pressure—essentially telling you how much energy your neighbors were using on average—to encourage energy efficiency. And it’s still true, as Opower employs sophisticated big data analysis to figure out how to cut waste, as Laksey goes onto describe here. Check it out: