Nick Bardsley and Milena Büchs present their research project which examines the impact of involvement in community-based initiatives on households’ energy use, applying an experimental design. It addresses different theories on the role of involvement with community initiatives and energy saving/behaviour change, drawing on qualitative interviews with participants from the matched case and control study, and other community initiatives in the UK
N. Bardsley & M. Büchs - Community-based initiatives on energy saving and behaviour change
1. Initial Effects of a CommunityBased Initiative for Energy
Saving
Nick Bardsley and Milena Büchs
with
Patrick James,
Anastasios Papafragkou, Tom Rushby,
Clare Saunders, Graham Smith,
Rebecca Wallbridge and Nick Woodman
3. Behavioural Intervention: Focus on
Community & Community Groups
Davidson (2010); Hargreaves et al (2008);
Nye & Burgess (2008); Cox et al (2012) …
Can social practices be
transformed via social
interaction involving
community groups?
But little hard evidence …
4. Research Design
• Matched case and control trial; N = 180 households
Control n=75
Treatment n=105
Home insulation upgrade
As control group +
interaction with
community greening
group
Energy measurement
Self-reports on travel &
consumption
3 years'
observation
• Qualitative interviews with participants
• Comparative analysis to other energy savings initiatives –
qualitative interviews with participants from 7 similar
initiatives
6. Which Kind of Behavioural
Intervention?
• Desired
– Genuine involvement of community group
– Could be adopted by government / local authorities
working with such groups
– Informed by research
• Outcome:
– Commitment by CG to run a minimum of 1
householder meeting per year, co-planned
– “Energy user group" to meet more frequently
7. Is there a Pulse?
• Main research questions are about energy
use over the 3 year period, using
comprehensive measures
• But if intervention makes a difference we
would expect to see a "pulse" at the time
of the main householder meetings
8. First Meeting
• home energy use (spatial heating and
electric power)
• also wider context (climate change) and
energy use (travel and consumption)
• "take-home actions"
– Reducing thermostat setting by 1C
– Not leaving appliances on when not in use
– Not leaving things on standby
11. Statistics: Power Use
Change in Power Use: 4 Weeks Before - 4 Weeks After the Event (>50% datapoints)
Control
60
Treatment
Outliers
40
T-test p=0.049
0
20
Percent
BUT …
-500
-250
0
250
500
750
-500
-250
0
250
500
750
difference in power (W)
Permutation test (2-tailed) "difference in differences" (DID): p = 0.095
Estimated DID = 30W = 5% of national average annualised HH rate
12. Theories
• Small groups and (face to face) interaction
– Information: deliberation / trust (e.g. Hobson
2003, Middlemiss 2008)
– Social norms (e.g. Georg 1999, Davidson
2010, Nye & Burgess 2008)
– Self-efficacy (Kollmuss 2002, Heiskanen
2010)
• Our data: interviews with 62 participants in
7 community groups
13. Information: deliberation / trust
“Through all that I actually got converted if you like. I sort of went from not being
interested and not recycling anything and not doing anything to being a
volunteer myself. [For example], I think they were talking about saving energy
by just boiling a little bit of water in the kettle, and I thought, “Well I can do that.”
And then I started doing that at work, and things like that, and it got sort of:
“actually, this makes a lot of sense” (Christine, D13)
“We were prompted to get the solar
panels because it was highlighted to
us about the really good tariff. That
came from Tom. Well we knew about
it a bit, we were sort of vaguely
thinking about it but then he said, but
you get 40 odd pence (….) a unit you
get paid for creating it. And I thought,
what? It’s so generous” (Alan, C7)
“Yes, it did [help me change
behaviours] because I
probably wouldn’t have
listened to the preaching
and the teaching had I not
been part of it so yes, it did,
it has” (Raymond, D1)
14. Social norms
“It [the group] serves as a
bit of a reminder
sometimes to, sort of,
think about what I can do”
(Melissa, C3)
“Probably it’s… more than learning
or not learning, all of them are things
that people know, but things that you
don’t put into practice. (…) So just
being surrounded by that, it puts a
little bit of pressure on yourself to
do it – so positive pressure more
than… [learning something new]
(Luca, I1)
“So yeah, I think these sort of
groups are really good
because they just keep
pushing you on to consider
things and if they don’t work
for you then you can say no
but if it works then you carry
on“ (Mark, C5)
15. Self-efficacy and emotions
“Yeah, it [going to meetings and
meeting people] bolsters you up a
bit. (…) Because otherwise you
would get disheartened. You look
round and you think, “What’s the
point?” But if you know that
there’s more than one, it’s not just
you that’s making the effort, and
especially if you see some younger
ones, you know, because like I said
to you, if you were born just after the
war you’re going to have that sort of
mentality anyway, but if it’s younger
ones that is really... you think, “Ah,
yes, there’s a point to it” (Dawn, C8)
“Possibly not [done anything new]
but the way in which they’ve been
done has probably changed. I
think it’s given me a bit more
courage to know that there is
actually stuff worth doing, that
I’m not just a freak of nature
that’s doing these crazy things
by myself” (Steven, G2)
“What it did do was it helped my
own feeling of helplessness and
depression because it was a way
of, perhaps, in a very small way,
becoming part of the solution rather
than part of the problem” (Lisa, F6)
16. Other Theoretical Perspectives
• Economics
– inability of received economic theory (e.g.
Samuelson, public goods) to explain collective action
– alternatives from behavioural economics still focus on
means-ends (e.g. reciprocity, team agency);
emotional dimension missing
• But is means-ends aspect well-conceptualised in
psychological theories (individualistic); self-efficacy?
• Being part of a joint effort reduces feelings of powerlessness
• But prospect of joint success also matters (e.g. voting)
18. Conclusions
• Estimated 30W reduction in power use (difference in
differences) over 4 weeks
• Appears sustained over 15w period
• But can't be inferred with confidence i.e. 10%
significance level
• No evidence of effect on heating energy (temperature)
• Initial data suggests potential savings from such
interventions
• Further work examines rebound, cumulative effects of
interventions, qualitative insights
19. Conclusions
• Qualitative interview material supports
several theories on role of small groups for
behaviour change
• These mechanisms are likely to overlap
• Possible scope for improved
characterisation of motivational aspects
• Scope for rolling out delivery of energy
saving programmes through community
groups?
20. References
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Davidson, S., 2010. Global Action Plans's EcoTeams Programme. In Peters, M., Fudge, S. &
Jackson, T. eds. Low Carbon Communities. Imaginative approaches to combating climate change
locally. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 157-177.
Georg, S., 1999. The social shaping of household consumption. Ecological Economics, 28 (3),
455-466.
Hobson, K., 2003. Thinking Habits into Action: the role of knowledge and process in questioning
household consumption practices. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and
Sustainability, 8 (1), 95 - 112.
Kollmuss, A. & Agyeman, J., 2002. Mind the Gap: why do people act environmentally and what
are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? Environmental Education Research, 8 (3), 239260.
Middlemiss, L.K., 2008. Influencing Individual Sustainability: a review of the evidence on the role
of community-based organisations. International Journal of Environment and Sustainable
Development, 7 (1), 78-93.
Nye, M. & Burgess, J., 2008. Promoting Durable Change in Household Waste and Energy Use
Behaviour. Report, University of East Anglia.
Randall, R., 2013. Carbon Conversations. Six meetings about climate change and carbon
reduction. Facilitator's guide (revised ed.). Stirling: The Surefoot Effect.