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Transcript of Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development Reducing household energy use and carbon emissions...
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Reducing household energy use and carbon emissions
The potential for promoting significant and durable change
through group participation
Jill FisherIESD
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Outline
• Motivation
• Group-based interventions
• Effectiveness
• Future research
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Motivation
• UK targets for emission reductions• 34 % by 2020• 80 % by 2050
• Domestic Sector directly responsible for• Household emissions 26%• Transport approximately 18 %
• Voluntary behaviour change could contribute 30% reduction in domestic emissions
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
The Potential of Behaviour Change
• Interventions are not delivering change on the scale needed
• Household Energy Use (Abrahamse et al 2005)
– 38 interventions 2/3rds either no reduction or a reduction of less than 5%
– 13 interventions which considered long term effects only five reported that reductions were maintained
• Travel behaviour intervention (Haq et al. 2008)
– changes over a 6 month period – not maintained after 12 months
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Group Based Interventions
• What do we know about them?
• Small groups of people• Meet regularly for a limited period• Address groups of related behaviours
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Group Based Interventions
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Evaluation
• Identified 4 interventions to consider• UK EcoTeams• Dutch EcoTeams• Carbon rationing/reduction action groups• Green Streets
• Evaluated using De Young’s criteria (1993)
• Reliability• Speed of change• Durability• Generality• Particularism
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Evaluation - Reliability
• UK EcoTeams • 17% reduction in direct emissions
• Green Streets• 23% reduction in direct emissions
• CRAGs• 27% reduction in direct emissions
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Evaluation - Speed of Change
• UK EcoTeams
• Dutch EcoTeams
• CRAGs
• Green Streets
5 months
8 months
12 months
12 months
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Evaluation - Durability and Generality
UK EcoTeams
• 151 participants interviewed after 2 to 3 years
• 90 % maintained or increased pro-environmental behaviour
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Evaluation - Durability and Generality
Start Finish 2 years after5.0
5.2
5.4
5.6
5.8
6.0
6.2
6.4
Control
EcoTeams
When behaviour was reported
Pro
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on
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eh
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From Staats et al 1994
Dutch EcoTeams
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Evaluation - Particularism
• Is the intervention generally applicable?• Can the technique be used universally• Is it situation or population specific
• Participants already had more pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour
• EcoTeams• CRAGs
• Incentive was offered• Green Streets
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Evaluation
• The groups based intervention are successful in terms of
• Reliability• Speed of change• Durability • Generality
• But not in terms of particularism
• What next?
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Future Research
• Why are group-based interventions so good at fulfilling the first four criteria?
• Is it possible to identify underlying elements responsible for this success?
• Can those elements be used in different contexts/with different people?
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Future Research
• To identify underlying elements• A case study
– Transition Leicester Carbon Reduction Groups
• A theoretical framework – The Reasonable Person Model
• Can those elements be applied in different contexts/with different people?
• Explore with focus groups drawn from the wider community
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Programme Number of Participants
Percent Reduction
Percent Carbon Reduction
Data collection
UK EcoTeams 1096 Electricity 7 Gas 21Water 15Waste 20
17 Meter readings and weights reported by participants
NetherlandsEcoTeams
153 Electricity 7Gas 23Water 5Waste 30
Unreported Meter readings and weights reported by participants
CRAGs 50 Unreported 27 Meter readings reported by participants
Green Streets 64 Energy 25 23 Meter readings collected by British Gas
Evaluation - Reliability
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Take meaningful
action
Explore and understand
Achieve competence
Future Research
Supportive environment
The Reasonable Person Model
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
Future Research
• The Reasonable Person Model suggests that• all environments can be viewed as
patterns of information• people are deeply concerned about
understanding information• people function better in environments
which are supportive of their informational needs
• such environments facilitate cooperation and willingness to change