Energy efficiency concerns the entire workplace and a cooperative approach is important for achieving ambitious energy reduction targets. Despite this, many organisations still mainly regard energy efficiency as a technical issue involving just a few specialists. A focus on the social relations and processes that shape work on energy issues is lacking. The aim of this paper is to illuminate and explore social relations between the staff driving energy issues and their co-workers. The analysis presented is based upon two features shaping their mutual engagement for reducing energy use: the communication strategy on energy issues undertaken by the workplace and the support for energy efficiency and conservation among the staff. The study provides insights gained from an interview study done in a Swedish organisation as well as from social science research in the field. The result is a conceptual framework that describes four relationships between the drivers of change and their co-workers. These relationships are characterized as active, passive, non-existing and conditional engagement in energy efficiency and conservation. The framework can be used as a tool for identifying social constraints and possibilities for reducing the use of energy at workplaces as well as in other contexts. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd