Good things come in small packages: is there a common set of motivators for energy behaviour?

Abstract

Household energy consumption can be curbed by individuals' energy saving, yet despite many efforts, our energy consumption is not lowering. This study investigated the role of a common set of behavioural determinants for households' intention to perform four energy-related behaviours: investing in PV cells, turning off apparatus on standby mode, showering less, and replacing old home appliances with new energyefficient ones. Behavioural determinants-energy awareness, general energy knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and moral norms-were assessed in a survey (N = 83) among Swedish residents. Energy awareness was moderately correlated with energy knowledge, but not with respondents' intentions to perform the behaviours, except for replacing home appliances. Moral norms were judged by respondents as important motivators and were a strong predictor to behavioural intentions to perform all four behaviours. Attitudes likewise were assessed as important motivators and were important predictors to all behavioural intentions except investing in PV cells, which was instead predicted by perceived behavioural control. Respondents' assessment of beliefs underlying attitudes also differed for investing in PV cells; namely, beliefs about economic benefits were lower.Moreover, respondents felt less morally responsible for investing in PV cells. Concluding, we found no evidence that intentions to engage in four energy-saving behaviours are mediated by general energy knowledge or energy awareness. Determinants to each behaviour differed, where-surprisingly-investment in PV cells stood out as less motivated both by economic incentives and moral concerns, although moral norms were shared motivators across all four behaviours. We discuss different possible interpretations of these findings.

Environmental Flow Scenarios for a Regulated River System: Projecting Catchment‐Wide Ecosystem Benefits and Consequences for Hydroelectric Production

“…Such changes may be on the horizon, with electrification in societ. altering consumption patterns, for example, with electric cars charging batteries during nights (Stikvoort et al., 2018). Moreover, according to projections of the future electricity system in Sweden, the national grid is expected to be unable to meet peaks in demand, meaning that efforts to move the timing of consumption of electricity to periods of less demand would offload the pressure on the grid during daytime, thus being a contribution to sustainable use of energy resources (Bartusch et al., 2011; Öhrlund et al., 2019).…”

Energy Conservation at Home: A Critical Review on the Role of End-User Behavior

“…Determinants for occupants for the adoption of energy-saving practices can vary from values to knowledge, from personality traits to income, from subjective norms to age, up to dwelling ownership and features. Regardless of the determinants that are detected and examined in specific studies, all agree that several concurring factors may lead to a change in household behaviors [44,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69].…”

Towards sustainable energy culture in the industrial sector: introducing an interdisciplinary method for understanding energy culture in business industries

“…Citizens, companies and consumers are worried about global warming and want to contribute to a more sustainable society, but they need advice, new methods and support on how to do so [3]. Energy behaviours are largely complex and shaped by many elements and factors including context, motivation and feedback [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Energy behaviour is a key term to the interdisciplinary concept of energy cultures.…”

“…The new approach is needed to understand energy behaviours as they are a complex phenomenon that includes not only technological but also psychological, ecological and socio-cultural issues [7,10,12,23]. The method is particularly developed for energy managers or equivalent who are responsible for energy monitoring and communication of energy efficiency at the company.…”

“…Thus, organizational policies and structures play an important role in guiding energy-efficient behaviours and engaging employees in enhancing common energy culture. In workplaces energy saving is rarely the central driver of the behaviour; practices and work tasks at hand are more central than saving energy in itself [7]. A significant number of studies understanding energy use and behaviours are conducted in domestic settings [4].…”