Abstract
This paper examines how office-based lighting and computer use behaviours relate to similar behaviours performed by the same individuals in a household setting. It contributes to the understanding of energy use behaviour in both household and organisational settings, and investigates the potential for the ‘spillover’ of behaviour from one context to another. A questionnaire survey was administered to office-based employees of two adjacent local government organisations (‘City Council’ and ‘County Council’) in the East Midlands region of the UK. The analysis demonstrates that the organisational or home setting is an important defining feature of the energy use behaviour. It also reveals that, while there were weak relationships across settings between behaviours sharing other taxonomic categories, such as equipment used and trigger for the behaviour, there was no evidence to support the existence of spillover effects across settings.
Highlights
In recent years, concern about environmental impacts and the cost, availability and security of energy supplies has led to heightened interest in ways to reduce energy use within buildings
By exploring how office-based lighting and computer use behaviours relate to similar behaviours performed by the same individuals in a household setting, this paper contributes to the understanding of energy use behaviour in both household and organisational settings, and investigates the potential for ‘spillover’ of behaviour from one context to another
The largest difference between samples was in the gender split, with females making up 57.9% of the City Council/City Central Building sample, but only 39.6% of the County Individual Building sample, possibly reflecting a difference in the kinds of departments based in each building
Summary
Concern about environmental impacts and the cost, availability and security of energy supplies has led to heightened interest in ways to reduce energy use within buildings. Work in this area has frequently focused on understanding the determinants of energy use behaviours, or on testing the effectiveness of intervention strategies aimed at changing behaviours (Abrahamse, Steg, Vlek, & Rothengatter, 2005). Much of the research into the determinants of energy use behaviours has focused on household settings (Abrahamse, Steg, Vlek, & Rothengatter, 2007; Owens & Driffill, 2008; Steg, Dreijerink, & Abrahamse, 2005). Interest is growing in understanding energy use behaviours in non-domestic, organisational settings such as offices and other workplaces (Lo, Peters, & Kok, 2012; Matthies, Kastner, Klesse, & Wagner, 2011; Murtagh et al, 2013, in press; Scherbaum, Popovich, & Finlinson, 2008). By exploring how office-based lighting and computer use behaviours relate to similar behaviours performed by the same individuals in a household setting, this paper contributes to the understanding of energy use behaviour in both household and organisational settings, and investigates the potential for ‘spillover’ of behaviour from one context to another
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