How gamification can nudge employees to act more sustainably

This story is about labs and pharmaceutical companies, not homes, but it touches on an idea worth knowing: freezers are big energy users, and small temperature changes can save a lot of power without hurting what's stored inside.

Pharma companies AstraZeneca and Amgen were among the winners of a competition called the Freezer Challenge, where more than 4,000 laboratories across nearly 270 organizations saved almost 30 gigawatt hours of energy. They did it mainly by resetting freezers that store biological samples from the industry-standard minus 80 degrees Celsius to minus 70 degrees, along with better maintenance of freezer parts. The change reportedly has no effect on most samples. One estimate in the story: a single lab freezer can use as much energy as two American homes.

Amgen and AstraZeneca were recognized for daily savings of over 5,000 kilowatt-hours each during the first half of 2026. Other winners included Siemens Healthineers in the hospital category and the U.K.'s Institute of Cancer Research in the academic category.

The takeaway for a home isn't about your own freezer setting, but the underlying point applies broadly: appliances that run constantly, especially ones set colder than they need to be, can waste a surprising amount of energy. If you're looking at your own home's energy use, checking whether any appliance is set colder or runs harder than necessary is a similar, low-cost way to find savings.