Cool to be cool? Hot to be hot?

In the EEB project we have started to talk about “the inertia of business as usual”. It has become increasingly clear that “business as usual”, or incremental change, will not lead to the necessary transformation of the building sector, achieving a radical decrease in global energy use in buildings. Market forces are not likely to take the lead yet, and today's building policies are not strong enough or not sufficiently enforced to have a real impact.

The fact is that we all need to change our energy behavior – at home and at work, including the professionals who finance, design, build and maintain the places where we live and work.

EEB identified this in our Facts and Trends Report. We said behavior was one of three business levers (along with a holistic approach and new financial models) that should help business achieve the desired transformation. The Assurance Group, in our meeting in Tokyo, advised us to drill further into these key factors. We are therefore holding three expert workshops on these themes. The behavior workshop was the first.

We met at Imperial College in London, hosted by Prof. David Fisk. The London-based sustainability communications group, Context, helped us to gather about 20 experts from academia, campaign organizations, advertising agencies and other marketing firms. We divided the experts into two groups, half for the morning and the other half for the afternoon session. EEB co-chairs Lafarge and UTC, along with core group member companies Philips and TEPCO participated the whole day. Our question to the experts was: “How can we get people to want energy efficiency?” Simon Glyn of Lippincott (who helped with our initial perception research) facilitated the sessions.

Our approach was to try and understand the social context, what has worked before in similar areas and try to apply it to the building sector. We wanted to look at it from the perspective of sustainability in the context of buildings but also buildings in the context of people's sustainability ambitions – not just making buildings more sustainable but making building energy the leading target among the range of sustainability activities. We wanted to look at behavior in homes and in offices, and emphasized the need for radical step change rather than incremental action.

The obstacles to behavior change

According to the experts, there are a lot of misconceptions about behavior change. This is not just about price and information. My own comments about the relationship between the economic parameters and behavior did not go down well! Accordingly we have to change the mindset in order to overcome the following blocks:

• The problem is too big, too abstract and impersonal
• The sustainability language is alienating
• It is not easy nor convenient to change
• People are different; what influences “deep greens” may not have an impact on other people. “Deep greens” are frequently “alternative”, which puts mainstream people off
• There is a lack of clear benefits
• And more!

The keys to success

People want to see what will generate an impact. Feedback is very important because people do not currently know the impact of their behavior. Therefore, we need to use metering and smart displays to show people's energy use; communicate on tangible words like heating and lighting rather than energy or energy efficiency, which are invisible and difficult to understand; make it visible, tangible and manageable. Other important factors are:

• Create clear incentives. Ensure that the person who changes gets the rewards
• Make it active. Get people involved
• Create clusters - change what happens through combined pressures
• Think about human values and needs
• Use networks and communities
• Use multiple channels because people are different and it is hard to be certain what will take off, so go for several angles at the same time.

Applying this to buildings

Much of the discussion focused on the issue of visibility. Attributes should be made clear, stylish, cool and colorful. Use visible signifiers - for example, use solar panels to show that this is an energy-efficient building. Other recommendations were:

• Use designers to make things fashionable
• Leadership from other industries – cross reference what they achieved
• Make users active
• Train building managers
• Make building energy labeling more specific.

Reference was often made to successful behavior changes that have occurred in the health sector, which were often combined with penalties (seatbelts, drinking and driving, smoking).

But another example referred to was fair trade, where there are no penalties and no financial rewards, but people want to behave in a certain way in order to relieve suffering or maybe to escape guilty feelings. This has been a bottom up movement – although there was some discussion on how important that movement really has been.

A third successful way forward has been to form communities, so people collectively started to understand and measure their own energy use. They set common goals and monitor progress. At the end they are rewarded. That seems to be workable.

A warning was flagged against positioning energy efficiency with fashion icons. If the person is very credible in eight out of ten aspects, the media will concentrate on the other two that are not so good, creating negative publicity. What is cool today might be not cool once you market it. Also, if you want people to emulate a celebrity, that person should have a lifestyle that ordinary energy users can relate to.

A very interesting approach outlined in one group was the idea that you have to name a certain behavior in order to be able to research it, discuss it, allow early adapters to move, create community support, etc. Then media can multiply and influence a political process. Without a name people cannot line up with a special positive behavior. The example given was jet lag, which existed before it was named, but people didn't relate to it until then.

Who has a name which can excite people about energy efficient behavior? Please come forward! We need your help!

Comments

[Daniella Abreu]

Dear Christian,

The lack of good leadership to embed sustainability in buildings projects in the building industry is probably one of the biggest barriers to energy efficiency at the moment.
I agree with you that a way forward is to cross reference leadership from other industries. Governments, companies and individuals around the world need to become more proactive in connecting different sectors of industry in order to achieve a much more sustainable outcome from the construction industry and other business sectors.

[jenny turner]

Hi Christian, what about 'off-gridders','off-gridding' or the 'off-grid' people/movement? It's already hapenning: see http://www.off-grid.net

Jen.