Education by Design: Creating Lasting Market Behavior Change through Education Training

摘要

Why do energy efficiency program designers include training interventions in theirprograms? Because, after they identify lack of knowledge as a market barrier, they hope thattraining will eliminate knowledge gaps and increase energy efficient practices. Yet manyprograms face problems like poorly-attended trainings, difficulty in measuring effects oftraining, or only a small amount of market behavior change after implementing trainingprograms.The state of training in the energy efficiency industry is a mixed bag – excellentprograms exist, and so do ineffective programs. Some training programs inspire lasting behaviorchange, and some seem to create no results at all. The Energy Center of Wisconsin hasdeveloped a systematic model for education and training that delivers consistent, measurable andsignificant results in terms of lasting energy efficiency behavior change. The system that deliversthis success includes six key elements that are replicable for other market transformationprograms: curriculum design founded on established adult education principles, rigorousevaluation, deliberate integration into other program elements, a focus on verifiable benefits, asolid business model, and an emphasis on quality.This paper will examine these six principles in detail and demonstrate their long- andshort-term effects over the past nine years in programs like the Wisconsin ENERGY STARHomes training series, the Daylighting Collaborative, and the Advanced Buildings nationaltraining rollout.