Energy companies use social information programming to help consumers conserve energy in their households. There are two primary forms of social information programming: descriptive feedback and injunctive feedback. An example of descriptive feedback used by energy companies is including the consumer's monthly energy usage relative to the average of others living in their area in the utility bill. Descriptive feedback describes an individual's or group's behavior comparable to others. Including information regarding relative energy consumption in the home energy report has been found to be associated with lower energy consumption. However, descriptive feedback on energy bills has also been found to increase energy usage among low energy consumers when used by itself. Injunctive feedback is providing approval for desired behavior such as lower energy consumption. Simply including a statement that the household's monthly energy consumption has been good or excellent is injunctive feedback in action. A study published in Nature Energy in 2020 looked at how using descriptive feedback and injunctive feedback in combination impacted household energy consumption, concluding that the combination of descriptive and injunctive feedback leads to improved energy conservation. 

References:

1) Bonan, J., Cattaneo, C., d'Adda, G. et al. (2020). The interaction of descriptive and injunctive social norms in promoting energy conservation. Nat Energy 5, 900–909. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00719-z. The interaction of descriptive and injunctive social norms in promoting energy conservation (nature.com)

2) Schultz, P. W., Nolan, J. M., et al. (2007). Te constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychol. Sci. 18, 429–434.