Aiming at promoting the social impact of science, the recognised publishing house Elsevier grants monthly the Atlas Awards, a distinction that highlights academic works with high social impact among all the articles of the more than 2,500 magazines of the publishing house. These awards are selected by a prestigious advisory committee, which includes members of Berkeley (Centre for Effective Global Action), United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and United Nations University among others. In February 2020, the article entitled "User perspectives in the design of interactive everyday objects for sustainable behaviour", whose authors are Ane Irizar-Arrieta, Diego Casado-Mansilla, Aiur Retegi, Pablo Garaizar and Diego López de Ipiña, researchers and teachers at the University of Deusto, has been selected with this distinction within the category of Sustainable Development Objective 12, evidencing the scientific excellence of the team and its line of research in the social and economic field.

In the mentioned article, persuasive technologies are analysed and explored as mediators to improve energy efficiency and pro-environmental attitudes of workers in tertiary buildings (it refers to buildings in the service or administrative sector). As a starting point, the paper describes a one-year study among subjects in which participants interact with a smart coffee machine under three different experimental conditions. With the results of this study, a new theory is generated to guide the design and development of people-centred interactive systems to improve sustainable behaviours. This new theory is applied in the conceptualisation and implementation of a new physical interactive device, incorporating specific ideas and solutions from different and complementary perspectives.