Community platform TROEF Energy

It's becoming an increasingly popular topic to raise awareness among building users about energy consumption. Not surprising, as the built environment faces major challenges when it comes to sustainability targets. The pressure to become more sustainable is therefore increasing. At the same time, the complexity of sustainability is also increasing. The TROEF consortium, including parties such as AM, BAM and KPN, saw this development coming a long time ago. TROEF's mission is to make a substantial contribution to a CO2-free Netherlands. And that is why this consortium created the TROEF community platform. A platform with which building users can share energy, have real-time insight into their CO2 footprint and are rewarded for using energy at the right time. And we were allowed to collaborate on this platform.

Instant feedback on energy consumption

40% of building energy consumption is influenced by its users. So if there is much to be gained anywhere, it is with the building user themself. The aim of the TROEF platform is to include the building user in the building's energy consumption. Ultimately, this leads to awareness of the building user and thus to a positive change in behaviour. In order to provide insight into energy consumption, a dashboard was developed for BAM's offices that uses real-time track & trace to show where the energy comes from and when there are peak loads on the energy network, for example. So not annually in a report, but at any time of the day. With this feedback, building users therefore not only see immediately how their building is performing, but also when the best time to consume energy is. Is there a peak load? Then make sure you use as little power as possible. Is the sun shining? Then charge your car. This direct feedback immediately triggers action.

Gamification for behavioural change

Conscious and engaged users can reduce energy consumption by 5 to 10%. You can achieve that bit of awareness with active user participation. Gamification is an effective way to achieve active participation. We have therefore added gamification techniques to the dashboard. In this case, it is mainly about a competition element involving interaction and real-time benchmarking. By connecting several offices from the office portfolio to the same dashboard, users see exactly which building scores best. This not only raises awareness, but also unites the different teams and thus creates a common goal.

Next steps

The TROEF platform is currently being used at several BAM offices. In this phase, interaction with users is being tested. This feedback will eventually be used to take the next steps. Think about adding additional functionalities, such as the use of notifications where, for example, users receive a notification on their smartphone when green energy is available. TROEF is also now thinking about how to scale up, because eventually, of course, everyone should have access to TROEF's community platform.