This document summarizes research on sustainable behavior change and its drivers at the household level. It discusses how while household appliances have become more energy efficient, increased usage of appliances has sometimes negated energy savings. It also describes several community-based energy programs in Ireland, including the Power of One campaign, Change.ie, Energy Neighbourhoods, and MOBENAW, which encourages workplace energy savings through donations to charity. Key drivers of energy behavior change discussed include measurement and feedback, social influences, information and awareness campaigns, and incentives.

1. Sustainable Change, Behaviour Change and its
Drivers at the Household Level
Tuesday 23 June 2009 1300-1400,
45b AZ 04
University of Surrey
Vincent Carragher, Bernadette O’Regan and Richard Moles
Centre for Environmental Research, University of Limerick, Limerick,
Ireland
Email: vincent.carragher@ul.ie, vcarragher@tea.ie

2. So, despite the fact that household appliances have become more
energy efficient, the increase in the amount and the use of these
appliances nullifies this positive effect. Abrahamse et al, 2003.
RE &
efficiency
Sufficiency
For instance, when the CFL bulb was
introduced, it appeared that people
who used these light bulbs left their
lights on for longer periods of time,
and installed additional lights (Steg &
Tertoolen, 1997). Similar trends have
been recorded with installation of
insulation in which occupants used
the savings benefit to increase their
thermal comfort further. Hence,
overall energy use did not decrease.
Energy Reduction Strategies in the household context & Sufficiency
Strategies

3. The Power of One Campaign
Change.ie
Energyneighbourhoods project
Transition towns
MOBENAW
Community-based EF survey
ERB, behavioural antecedents and potential drivers
Productive paradigms for future ERB change
Talk Topics
Community
Level

4. Vast Array of Communities
Spatial
Population
Physical
Functional
Residential
Office
Factory Floor
School
University
A group of people
connected through
common interest

5. Noted in CER research in over 80 communities. Examples
1) Single Person household using 3,500 Litres of Oil
annually. Four person household using 1000 Litres of
Oil annually. Energy, Food, Waste, Transport & Water
2) Benchmarks and experience of EEBP Program in the UK
show interalia offices, colleges, schools diverse
quantities of consumption
In summary communities and their individuals differ
Within Communities Vastly
Different Individual
Consumptions

6. The Power of One Campaign
Ireland's national energy efficiency and sufficiency awareness campaign - was launched in
September 2006. Power of One is an ongoing multi-media campaign featuring television,
radio, press, outdoor and online messaging, together with sponsorship of selected events,
press briefings, media appearances etc. Dedicated websites - and significant online presence
through social networking websites are key features of the campaign.
Program has included 2 phases and a total of 13 families
The campaign objectives include:
Building awareness on types of sources of energy, their costs and environmental impacts.
Raising awareness of the impact that inefficient energy use has on driving up costs and
economic and environmental impacts.
Informing and empowering home, business and sectoral users on best practice energy
savings. Claims average 20% saving with no continuous monitoring thereafter.
Complementing existing programmes.
The success of the campaign, in particular the strength of its engagement via the internet,
was recognised in the E-Government Awards 2008 with the Department winning the Best
Marketing Website category. www.powerofone.ie

7. Change
In April 2008, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage & Local Government, Mr.
John Gormley, T.D., launched the consumer communication aspect of the
Government’s climate change campaign. The “Change” campaign has two key and
overriding imperatives; firstly to change how people in Ireland think about climate
change, and secondly to encourage everyone to change how they behave.
The communications campaign includes a comprehensive website, www.change.ie,
a lo-call information line, 1890-242 643, and advertising, all of which are backed up
by an extensive stakeholder engagement process that is working with all of the
sectors to change behaviour and reduce Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions with a
view to halting climate change.
Online calculator ands its difficult to assess the impact of this – unit less

8. IEE EN TEA
Energy Neighbourhood is about communities working together to save energy through
efficiency and sufficiency measures. The benchmark for energy saving is 8% compared with
the previous years consumption. Project originated in Belgium and all neighbourhoods
achieving at least 8% will receive a reward with the top neighbourhoods going to Brussels.
Energy saving calculation is based on meter readings and using a user friendly web based tool
www.energyneighbourhoods.eu/ie. This website will host :
1. All the data from participating neighbourhoods
2. Useful material available to download and
3. A forum
The achievements will serve to inspire and motivate others to take action, and the methods
used to achieve energy savings should present some interesting and replicable ideas.
At the end of the project, a local climate debate will be organized and set up to allow
participants and their host organizations to discuss openly the issues facing communities
around energy use and climate change, and to see what else can be achieved.

9. EN 1 EN 2 EN 3 EN 4 EN 5 EN 6
Energy Neighbourhoods Town Council
EN 7 EN 8 EN 9 EN 10 EN 11 EN 12
Organise & manage Master
576 Houses
EN-Energy Neighbourhood
EN

10. IEE EN TEA
Rank Neighbourhood Total % change kWh saved CO2 tonnes
1 St Ailbes Staff Tipperary Town -17 12944 8.025
2 Cluan Glas Thurles -10 3993 2.476
3 Monastery Primary School Tipperary Town -8 4021 2.493
4 Our Lady of Mercy Primary School in cahir -8 2210 1.370
5 Nenagh Town Council -7 2488 1.543
6 Craft Granary Cahir -5 2098 1.301
7 Emily Tidy Towns -4 703 0.436
8 StAilbe’s Pupils Tipperary Town -3 866 0.537
9 Knockanrawley FRC Tipperary Town -2 651 0.404
10 Ursuline Secondary School Thurles -1 140 0.087
11 TEA Board of Management cahir +8 +3793 +2.352
12 ABC Gardeners Tipperary Town +10 +2192 +1.359
13 Cahir Farm Relief Service +24 +7480 +4.638
14 Cahir Area Office +39 +12374 +7.672
15 Hazelwood, Thurles -11* 1687 1.046

11. IEE EN TEA
-18%
-16%
-14%
-12%
-10%
-8%
-6%
-4%
-2%
0%
StAilbesStaff
CluanGlas
Monasteryprimaryschool
OurladyofMercyprimary
school
NenaghTownCouncil
CraftGranary
EmilyTidyTowns
StAilbe’spupils
KnockanrawleyFRC
Ursulinesecondaryschool
Final results saving % per neighbourhood- IRELAND
St Ailbes Staff Cluan Glas Monastery primary school Our lady of Mercy primary school
Nenagh Town Council Craft Granary Emily Tidy Towns StAilbe’s pupils
Knockanrawley FRC Ursuline secondary school

12. IEE EN TEA
Germany, Ireland, Italy and France in broad agreement
Behaviour change and related savings in the region 15
to 20% possible
Spain savings of 60%
No monitoring or survey type assessment of behaviour
change

13. This project will establish a scheme to motivate staff
in the workplace to save energy whereby their
company will agree to donate a proportion of the
energy cost savings to a charity selected by the staff.
MOBENAW Donate Your Energy

14. MOBENAW Donate Your Energy
Overview:
• The program involves Tipperary Energy Agency working with the site
(Facilities/EHS/IT/Production) on two energy conservation programs which save
energy and encourage employee participation and energy awareness. In return
the site has committed to donating a percentage (20%) of the energy savings made
directly from the 2 programs to a local charity, the Children’s Ward in Tipperary
General Hospital, with a minimum agreed donation of €2000.
The two energy conservation programs identified are:
• 1. Switching off PC’s & Lights (outside of normal working hours)
• 2. Identifying & Switching off Non-Production Critical Equipment (outside of
normal working hours)

15. MOBENAW Donate Your Energy
• The Facilities and IT departments have completed audits (out of hours) to benchmark
how good or bad office areas are at turning OFF their PC’s and PC Monitors when they
leave the office at night
• The areas audited included the Main Office (ground, first and second floors), DES Offices,
Computer Training Rooms and SDS Production Offices
Date PC On Monitor On
Oct-08 74% 75%
Feb-09 46% 60%
Apr-09 30% 52%

16. MOBENAW Donate Your Energy
Staff - actors
Altruistic
League Table – ‘name and shame’
Prompt cards – positive
reminders
Emails-encouragement,
reminders and know how
Posters - reminders

17. MOBENAW has picked up from the foundations of a similar scheme,
called ASSESS, which operated in UK universities.
In ASSESS engineering students carried out energy audits of schools. This
work was carried out as part of their coursework & supervised by an
academic tutor or lecturer.
The Student Power scheme extends this principle to marketing/business
students across europe to work on energy awareness projects as part of
their coursework.
MOBENAW Student Power

18. .........is for students to work with TI to provide
support on energy awareness campaigns. The
undergraduates would be supervised by a member of
the academic staff who has an interest in the subject,
& this would contribute to their coursework.
Overall Aim

19. Campaigns
(by organisation)
Sector Type of material Themes
A-D Industry Booklets Heating
E-H Offices Campaign logos Lighting
J-M Retail Campaign mascots Office equipment and small power
M-P Hotels and leisure Clipart Good housekeeping
Q-T Universities & colleges Competitions Compressed air
U-Z Local authorities Displays Water
Government departments E-mails / E-cards Refrigeration
Utility companies Guides Air conditioning
Distribution &Transport Incentives Motors
Public awareness campaigns Leaflets Lifts / Elevators
Others Letters Transport
Newsletters
Payslip inserts
Pledge cards
Posters
Presentations & training
Press releases
Quizes
Quotations
Screensavers
Slogans
Stickers
Suggestion schemes
Videos
‘Wallpaper’
Other promotional material
Website currently developed is
energyexchange.eu
All european partners are
collecting best practice awareness
campaign material

20. • As might have been expected there is not
one but a multiplicity of ways of
promoting greener lifestyles, confirming
the need for packages of mutually
supporting measures, DEFRA, 2008.
Community-based sufficiency type
actions should accompany technological
type efficiency & renewable energy
options.
In Summary
ERB Drivers
SHOW MOVIE

21. Research Work in
CER
RESEARCH ENABLING COMMUNITIES TO REDUCE
THEIR CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS
The ecological footprint (EF) measures the impact our lifestyles have on
the Earths Resources and calculates the amount of carbon dioxide
emissions that are related to our domestic lifestyles.
This research study engages schools enables them to measure and thus
appoint responsibility for carbon use locally. Survey forms are
distributed annually and once completed define the carbon intensity of
each householders lifestyles. The EF Survey looks at six consumption
categories and their related carbon dioxide emissions. Low Carbon
lifestyles are encouraged using antecedent and consequence type
interventions such as dissemination of results and tailored carbon
reduction measures. These include renewable energy and efficiency
options and sufficiency actions. One village in Tipperary has reduced its
emissions by some 30% over a four year period. Equivalent to 11.000
tonnes CO2 in four years.
Further details at www.ul.ie/lowcarbonfutures
Energy
Waste
Transport
Food
Water
Built Land
home energy
22%
shelter&water
1%
domestic waste
21%
food
30%
car use
15%
flights
11%

22. Top-down drivers for sustainable behaviour change are generally antecedent:
• The Rio Declaration and LA21
• The Aarhus Convention
• International organisations; for example: WWF, UNEO, ICLEI etc
• National governments
• Financial signals – incentives and disincentives
The bottom-up drivers are both antecedent (a) and consequence (c):
• Public fatigue with governance (a)
• Population pressures (a)
• Demand for land (a)
• Environmental damage (a), (c)
• Local Authorities (a)
• NGO’s, associations and bodies (a), (c)
• Human actors (Local groups, Researchers, Project Managers and Individual Interests) (a), (c)
• Measurement of energy use - Carbon accounting (a)
• Ascription of responsibility for energy use (a)
• Social capital – community (a), (c)
• Information and awareness (a), (c)
• Schools (a), (c)
• Feedback (c)
• Contextual or situational factors (a)
• Commitment (a)
• Goal setting (a)
• Rewards (c)
Desk Top Review:
Phase II Changes
Tools and actors

23. EF related to domestic
energy consumption in
Ballina over four years
EF related to annual
household energy
consumption per person
07-8
EF related to annual
household energy
consumption per person
06-7
EF related to annual
household energy
consumption per person
05-6
EF related to annual
household energy
consumption per person
04-5
95%CI
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6

24. year
07-0806-0705-0604-05
95%CIOilEF
0.80
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
EF related to domestic oil
consumption in Ballina
over four years

25. year
07-0806-0705-0604-05
95%CICoalEF
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
EF related to domestic
coal consumption in
Ballina over four years

26. EF related to domestic
waste assimilation in
Ballina over four years
EF related to annual
waste consumption per
person 07-8
EF related to annual
waste consumption per
person 06-7
EF related to annual
waste consumption per
person 05-6
EF related to annual
waste consumption per
person 04-5
95%CI
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6

27. EF related to landfill
waste in Ballina over
four years
year
07-0806-0705-0604-05
95%CIEFannuallandfillwaste
1.50
1.25
1.00
0.75
0.50

28. EF relating to recycled
waste in Ballina over
four years
year
07-0806-0705-0604-05
95%CIEFAnnualRecycledWaste
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10

29. year
07-0806-0705-0604-05
95%CIEFrelatedtofoodconsumptionperperson
1.20
1.15
1.10
1.05
1.00
EF related to domestic
food consumption in
Ballina over four years

30. EF related to car
transport in Ballina over
four years
year
07-0806-0705-0604-05
95%CIEFrelatedtocaruseperperson
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40

31. EF related to air flights
for holidays in Ballina
over two years
year
07-0806-07
95%CIEFduetoshorthaulholidaysbyair
0.45
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25

32. Notable Change
EF, EAC and related drivers
(2.4 – 1.6)

33. In Summary Typical
Interventions
Develop specific set of drivers which are both actors and tools and which can
shape ERB:
1. Antecedent strategies (commitment, goal setting, challenge, information,
measurement, infrastructural etc) or
2. Consequence strategies (feedback, rewards, recognition, monitoring and
measurement etc)
EF, EAC and related drivers

34. Social Physics and the concept of the l’homme moyen, Quetelet,
1832
Variation in behaviours related to consumption, EF, 2009
Systems ideas are most appropriate when dealing with
‘messes’: problems which are unbounded in scope, time
and resources, and enjoy no clear agreement about what a
solution would even look like, let alone how it could be
achieved, Chapman, 2004
Systems level ERB versus individual ERB
Experimentology versus Reductionism
In a system the whole is greater than the
sum of its parts
Complex
Adaptive
SystemsThe result can be a rich
and subtle interplay of
interactions, leading to
outcomes which are
impossible to predict
without considering the
dynamic of the group as
a whole, Ball, 2005

35. CAS
The richness of interconnections means that any one change has
several prior causes and itself may contribute to further changes in
these causes. It is precisely in these circumstances that a holistic or
systems approach is essential, because the components cannot
sensibly be separated, as the reductionist approach assumes. It
also means that the behaviour of the system is determined more
by its own internal structure than by specific external causes.
Furthermore, its own internal structure will have evolved as a
result of its particular history, including its previous adaptations to
changes in its environment, Chapman 2004.

36. Survey design to
assess changes
Behaviours
Attitudes, Beliefs, Values, Agency,
etc. changed
Social
Groupings EF
EAC
related drivers
Resident
And/or
Science of individual
behaviour change is
complex. Relationships,
interactions, discourses and
effects within social
networks are diverse. Many
theoretical models exist

37. EF, EAC & Survey
Establish cause and effect and associated:
•Drivers
•Behaviours
•Internal factors
•External factors and
•Normative factors

38. Contact details and reference websites
Email: vincent.carragher@ul.ie
vcarragher@tea.ie
Address: Centre for
Environmental Research,
University of Limerick, Limerick,
Ireland.
Phone: 061 213010
THANK YOU!
www.ul.ie/~cer
www.tea.ie
www.ul.ie/lowcarbonfutures
Energyexchange.eu
www.energyneighbourhoods.eu/ie

39. ‘Change.ie’, have been a recent part of Irish government policy. Similarly at a community scale local involvement, action and
participation is producing low carbon transition at a household level. Projects such as the ‘Energyneighbourhoods’ project and
transition towns show that local drivers can be an important ingredient in ERB change. Specific research conducted by the CER in
University of Limerick (UL) is focussed on ERB at the household and community levels. This research uses an annual community-
based EF survey to monitor and appoint a responsibility for carbon use amongst its residents. Subsequently annual carbon clinics
produce specific customised low carbon remedies which are circulated amongst the community and by the community. A synopsis of
the results over the last four years will be presented which define a significant reduction in the carbon intensity of the residents
domestic-lifestyles.
Potential drivers of ERB change have been defined by researchers in CER through a review of the literature. More extensive appraisal
is currently ongoing in order to define the importance and nature of behaviour change at the individual level. Complex social
interactions also exist, which enable low-carbon behaviour change to be secured by interventions at the community scale. In order to
understand this behaviour change it is necessary that the ERB, the behavioural antecedents and their drivers can be defined.To this
extent the results of the Energyneighbourhoods project and the EF project will prove useful. Ongoing efforts to define the above will
be discussed. The findings of this project will establish and support productive paradigms for future ERB change through the
successful and synergistic cooperation of the various sectors of the education system and the community.
MOBENAW