Environmental Behaviour Change

CHANGING LIVES TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE: Why do people adopt and maintain sustainable lifestyles?

by Sarah Hards

Profiling the 'Pro‐environmental Individual': A Personality Perspective

by Ezra Markowitz

Markowitz, E.M., Goldberg, L.R., Ashton, M.C. & Lee, K. (Forthcoming, 2012). Profiling the ‘pro-environmental individual’: A personality perspective. Journal of Personality.

The Conceptual Model of Energy Awareness Development Process: The transferor segment

by Weng Wai Choong

Energy awareness is the first step to achieve energy sustainability. Without energy awareness, effort in energy... more Energy awareness is the first step to achieve energy sustainability. Without energy awareness, effort in energy conservation can be difficult and leading to energy wastage. This paper intends to introduce the conceptual model of energy awareness development process (CMEADP) as a guide for facilities and energy managers to raise energy awareness and improve energy-use behaviour among the building's users in Malaysian university. The CMEADP consisted of two segments: receiver dominated segment that represents the energy awareness achievement process and transferor dominated segment that represents the energy awareness development process. Each of the segments consist a sequence of core processes. This paper focus on the transferor dominated segment which play an essential role in creating energy awareness and lead to energy saving.

Living with a carbon allowance: the experiences of Carbon Rationing Action Groups and implications for policy

by Rachel Howell

Published in Energy Policy

Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAGs) are grassroots voluntary groups of citizens concerned about climate change, who... more Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAGs) are grassroots voluntary groups of citizens concerned about climate change, who set themselves a carbon allowance each year and provide support to members seeking to reduce their direct carbon emissions from household energy use and personal transport. Some groups have a financial penalty for carbon emitted in excess of the ration, and systems whereby under-emitters are rewarded using the monies collected from over-emitters. CRAGs therefore operate the nearest scheme in existence to the proposed policy of Personal Carbon Trading (PCT). This paper reports the findings of a study of the opinions and experiences of individuals involved in CRAGs (‘CRAGgers’). In general, interviewees have made significant behavioural changes and emissions reductions, but many would be unwilling to sell spare carbon allowances within a national PCT system. The choices made by CRAGgers with respect to the design and operation of their ‘carbon accounting’, their experiences of reducing fossil fuel energy use, and their views on personal carbon trading at CRAG and national level are discussed. Some possible implications for the design of a national PCT system are considered, as well as the limitations of CRAGs in informing an understanding of the potential impacts and operation of PCT.

Attitudes, norms, identity and environmental behaviour: Using an expanded theory of planned behaviour to predict participation in a kerbside recycling programme

by David Uzzell

Nigbur, D., Lyons, E., and Uzzell, D. (2010). Attitudes, norms, identity and environmental behaviour: Using an expanded theory of planned behaviour to predict participation in a kerbside recycling programme, British Journal of Social Psychology,49, 2, 259 – 284

In an effort to contribute to greater understanding of norms and identity in the theory of planned behaviour, an... more In an effort to contribute to greater understanding of norms and identity in the theory of planned behaviour, an extended model was used to predict residential kerbside recycling, with self-identity, personal norms, neighbourhood identification and injunctive and descriptive social norms as additional predictors. Data from a field study (N=527) using questionnaire measures of predictor variables and an observational measure of recycling behaviour supported the theory. Intentions predicted behaviour, while attitudes, perceived control, and the personal norm predicted intention to recycle. The interaction between neighbourhood identification and injunctive social norms in turn predicted personal norms. Self-identity and the descriptive social norm significantly added to the original theory in predicting intentions as well as behaviour directly. A replication survey on the self-reported recycling behaviours of a random residential sample (N=264) supported the model obtained previously. These findings offer a useful extension of the theory of planned behaviour and some practicable suggestions for pro-recycling interventions. It may be productive to appeal to self-identity by making people feel like recyclers, and to stimulate both injunctive and descriptive norms in the neighbourhood.

Transforming Environmental Psychology

by David Uzzell

Uzzell, D. and Räthzel, N. (2009) ‘Transforming Environmental Psychology’, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 29, 3, 340- 350.

Although it is recognised that the individual and the external world are linked in complex and mutual ways and can... more Although it is recognised that the individual and the external world are linked in complex and mutual ways and can only be treated together as one phenomenon there is little evidence that transactionalist approaches, despite potentially providing a truly distinctive approach for environmental psychology, have been fully understood or operationalised. We take as our starting point the theoretical proposition that individuals are the sum of their social relations, i.e., they are the cause and consequence of their relations to others and the environment. Therefore environmental psychology should give priority to examining the reciprocity between people and environment and the ways in which they mutually reproduce the material conditions for their existence. Drawing on the example of sustainable development, they argue that any attempt to develop a sustainable society has to understand how the relationships between individuals and their social contexts can be changed. Thus the emphasis in a transformative environmental psychology should shift to the relations of production and consumption and the social and political relations within which values, attitudes and behaviours are formed, and unsustainable ways of living and working as well as the environment are produced and reproduced.

Social Practice and the Evolution of Personal Environmental Values

by Sarah Hards

Climate Change: Warming to the Task

by Matthew Davis

Co-authored with Rose Challenger, published in the Psychologist, 2009.

Understanding and promoting "Green Behaviour" in the use of existing buildings

by Matthew Davis

Social Experiments In Sustainable Consumption: An Evidence-Based Approach With Potential for Engaging Low-Income Communities

by Tom Hargreaves

Co-authored with Nye, M., and Burgess, J. Published in Local Environment, 13(8), pp743-758, 2008.

This paper considers the potential of Global Action Plan UK’s (GAP) facilitated team-based approach to changing... more This paper considers the potential of Global Action Plan UK’s (GAP) facilitated team-based approach to changing consumption practices for working with low-income communities. It outlines the two dominant approaches for encouraging sustainable consumption in UK policy: attitude–behaviour connection models (A–Bc) and consumer motivation theories. It then contrasts these with GAP’s group-based approach and presents quantitative evidence for its effectiveness in reducing waste and electricity consumption. We suggest that three features of GAP’s approach (i) measurement and feedback, (ii) contextualised knowledge production, and (iii) a supportive social context are critical to its success because they enable individuals to expose their taken-for-granted routines and behaviours to reflexive scrutiny in a trusted community. We argue that these factors make GAP’s approach sensitive to the needs of low-income communities, but that such innovative social experiments require more support to build on their experiences, expand in size, and maintain a focus on both sustainable consumption and inequality.

Putting Foucault to work on the environment: exploring pro-environmental behaviour change as a form of discipline

by Tom Hargreaves

Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) Working Paper No. EDM10-11. 2010.

Calls for pro-environmental behaviour change among individuals have become commonplace within the ecological modernist... more Calls for pro-environmental behaviour change among individuals have become commonplace within the ecological modernist framework. To date, research on pro- environmental behaviour has tended to emphasise either the more or less rational decision- making processes undertaken by individuals, or the ways in which broader social discourses and practices enable or constrain pro-environmental action. As far as politics enters into these discussions, it is normally with respect to how responsibility for addressing environmental problems should be allocated between individuals, governments or businesses. By contrast, this paper employs Foucault’s understanding of disciplinary power to interrogate the micro-political processes of social control at work inside behaviour change interventions through which action by individuals comes to be seen as the most appropriate solution to global environmental issues. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of a behaviour change intervention called Environment Champions run in the head offices of a British construction company called Burnetts, it reveals the centrality of various subtle techniques of surveillance, normalisation and discipline to behaviour change processes. In so doing, it conceives of behaviour change less as a process of encouraging individuals voluntarily to choose pro-environmental behaviour, and more as one of making up environmental subjects for whom such acts are appropriate.

Practice-ing behaviour change: Applying social practice theory to pro-environmental behaviour change

by Tom Hargreaves

Published in the Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.11, No.1 (March 2011).

This article applies the insights of social practice theory to the study of proenvironmental behaviour change through... more This article applies the insights of social practice theory to the study of proenvironmental behaviour change through an ethnographic case study (nine months of participant observation and 38 semi-structured interviews) of a behaviour change initiative — Environment Champions — that occurred in a workplace. In contrast to conventional, individualistic and rationalist approaches to behaviour change, social practice theory de-centres individuals from analyses, and turns attention instead towards the social and collective organization of practices — broad cultural entities that shape individuals’ perceptions, interpretations and actions within the world. By considering the planning and delivery of the Environment Champions initiative, the article suggests that practice theory provides a more holistic and grounded perspective on behaviour change processes as they occur in situ. In so doing, it offers up a wide range of mundane footholds for behavioural change, over and above individuals’ attitudes or values. At the same time, it reveals the profound difficulties encountered in attempts to challenge and change practices, difficulties that extend far beyond the removal of contextual ‘barriers’ to change and instead implicate the organization of normal everyday life. The article concludes by considering the benefits and shortcomings of a practice-based approach emphasizing a need for it to develop a greater understanding of the role of social interactions and power relations in the grounded performance of practices.

Making Energy Visible: A Qualitative Field Study of How Householders Interact With Feedback From Smart Energy Monitors

by Tom Hargreaves

Co-authored with Nye, M., and Burgess, J. Published in Energy Policy Vol. 38, pp6111-6119 (2011)

This paper explores how UK householders interacted with feedback on their domestic energy consumption in a field trial... more This paper explores how UK householders interacted with feedback on their domestic energy consumption in a field trial of real-time displays or smart energy monitors. After examining relevant bodies of literature on the effects of energy feedback on consumption behaviour, and on the complex role of energy and appliances within household moral economies, the paper draws on qualitative evidence from interviews with 15 UK householders trialling smart energy monitors of differing levels of sophistication. It focuses specifically on householder motivations for acquiring the monitors, how the monitors have been used, how feedback has changed consumption behaviour, and the limitations to further behavioural change the householders experienced. The paper concludes by identifying significant implications for future research and policy in this area.

Footprints and Handprints: The Edinburgh University community's climate impact and how we begin reducing it

by Ric Lander

Authors: Ric Lander, Oliver Cooper, Natalie Czaban, Sion Lanini, David Somervell, Tom McGrath.
Published by University of Edinburgh, November 2009.

Footprints and Handprints brings together the collective experience of Transition Edinburgh University over its first... more Footprints and Handprints brings together the collective experience of Transition Edinburgh University over its first year. It is the first significant research output of the group and covers key concepts, the internal working arrangement of the group, an estimation of the carbon footprint of the Edinburgh University community and proposals for future action.

Lights, camera… action? Altered attitudes and behaviour in response to the climate change film The Age of Stupid.

by Rachel Howell

Global Environmental Change 21(1): 177-187
Reports on the first stage of my study of the impact of The Age of Stupid

The film The Age of Stupid depicts the world in 2055 devastated by climate change, combining this with documentary... more The film The Age of Stupid depicts the world in 2055 devastated by climate change, combining this with documentary footage which illustrates many facets of the problems of climate change and fossil-fuel dependency. This study investigates the effects of the film on UK viewers’ attitudes and behaviour through a three-stage survey. Analysis of changes in attitudes focussed particularly on respondents’ concern about climate change, motivation to act, fear about the potential for catastrophe, beliefs about responsibility for action, and sense of agency. The film increased concern about climate change, motivation to act, and viewers’ sense of agency, although these effects had not persisted 10-14 weeks after seeing it. It was also successful in promoting some mitigation actions and behavioural change, although respondents reported barriers to further action, such as limited options for improving home energy efficiency among those in rented accommodation. However, filmgoers were atypical of the general public in that they exhibited very high levels of concern about climate change, knowledge about how to reduce their carbon emissions, and contact with organisations campaigning about climate change, before they saw the film. The paper considers how these factors may have enabled viewers to respond to the film as they did, as well as policy implications for those seeking to develop effective climate change communications.