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


Outline

• Motivation

• Group-based interventions

• Effectiveness

• Future research


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


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


Group Based Interventions

• What do we know about them?

• Small groups of people• Meet regularly for a limited period• Address groups of related behaviours


Group Based Interventions


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


Evaluation - Reliability

• UK EcoTeams • 17% reduction in direct emissions

• Green Streets• 23% reduction in direct emissions

• CRAGs• 27% reduction in direct emissions


Evaluation - Speed of Change

• UK EcoTeams

• Dutch EcoTeams

• CRAGs

• Green Streets

5 months

8 months

12 months

12 months


Evaluation - Durability and Generality

UK EcoTeams

• 151 participants interviewed after 2 to 3 years

• 90 % maintained or increased pro-environmental behaviour


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

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From Staats et al 1994

Dutch EcoTeams


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


Evaluation

• The groups based intervention are successful in terms of

• Reliability• Speed of change• Durability • Generality

• But not in terms of particularism

• What next?


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?


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


Thank you

[email protected]


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


Take meaningful

action

Explore and understand

Achieve competence

Future Research

Supportive environment

The Reasonable Person Model


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

institute of energy and sustainable development reducing household energy use and carbon emissions...

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