The Impact of Workplace Initiatives on Low Carbon Behaviours

ANNEX 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review took the form of a rapid evidence assessment. Nine academic databases were searched for relevant literature³² and searches were restricted to papers published within the past ten years because behaviour change is a relatively new field. A range of search terms were used that focused on identifying workplace behaviour change literature (see Table A2.1 for a list of search terms).

The academic searches were supplemented by searches of the websites of relevant organisations. These included Prince's Mayday Network, Sustrans and Carbon Trust (see Table A2.2 below for a full list). In addition, interviewees from intermediary organisations were asked for recommendations of any relevant published or unpublished literature.

Academic articles were screened on title and those that were deemed relevant were then screened on the basis of their abstract for relevance to the research questions. The focused on extracting findings that are in a workplace setting and relate to the behaviour of employees. In total 22 research and evaluation papers were reviewed in depth. This was supplemented with twelve sets of guidance aimed at employers outlining how to encourage low carbon workplace behaviours.

Table A2.1: Database search terms

Source: IES, 2011

Table A2.2: Organisations whose websites were searched for literature

Source: IES, 2011