Using Self-Awareness as a Means to Reduce Energy Consumption

Abstract

During a period of 6 months, 16 previously homeless male participants from a small town in the UK were encouraged to adopt an intrinsic and environmentally responsible attitude. The aim was specifically to reduce the participants' energy consumption. This was done through self-awareness sessions in parallel with traditional environmental educational sessions. Self-awareness was in this study used as a tool to help guide the participants towards a positive sense of self through the engagement of energy saving behaviors. The self-awareness sessions took place in the form of a series of small group sessions. Focus groups were conducted prior to the self-awareness sessions and individual interviews conducted after they had been completed, in order to measure whether their environmentally held beliefs had changed. Each focus group and interview was structured around their environmentally held beliefs and took less than 1 hour. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The analysis revealed that at the onset the participants lacked interest in energy reduction behaviors. However, after having taken part in the selfawareness sessions it became evident that a shift in attitude had occurred. This investigation was part of a bigger project with the participants in which their social housing underwent retrofitting with air-source heat pumps, to make the houses more energy efficient.

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Consumptive Behavior in Female University Students: Qana’ah and Hedonic Lifestyle as Predictors

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