Abstract
Many regions around the world experience both chronic and intermittent needs for residents to reduce their water consumption. Recent advances in water metering infrastructure offer opportunities to provide customers with detailed feedback about their consumption, but research in behavioral science suggests that feedback by itself is not enough to motivate conservation. The current empirical work builds on previous studies showing the ability of an augmented feedback approach to promote reductions in residential water consumption, and extends previous research by exploring the variability in responses to this feedback. A sample of Sacramento customers was provided with printed home water reports in which they could see their household water consumption compared with similar homes in their area. The results showed that households that received the report used 8.5% less water in the subsequent six months than did similar households that did not receive the printed reports. Additional analyses showed that the effect was particularly strong for high-consuming households, and that the discrepancy between household consumption and similar homes influenced the amount of water savings.
Highlights
As the world’s population grows, the demand for natural resources will continue to increase
This paper focuses on demand management, and the integration of behavioral science with engineering and software to create an effective feedback platform that can promote both water efficiency and conservation in a residential setting
The printed reports were divided into six panels, using a tri-fold design on 8.5 × 11 paper, to give residents feedback about their level of consumption over the past month, a comparison to similar homes, and targeted behaviors that could help to reduce their water consumption
Summary
As the world’s population grows, the demand for natural resources will continue to increase. Among the many finite resources, fresh water stands out as one of the most critical. Fresh water is essential for life, and the World Health Organization estimates that each person needs 15 liters per day for basic necessities such as drinking, cooking, and sanitation (Reed et al, 2013). The United Nations estimates that 50–100 liters per person per day is sufficient for personal and domestic uses, including washing clothes, personal, and household hygiene, and other activities. While most of the world’s population has access to improved sources of drinking water (91% according to the United Nations), managing the availability of water is an ongoing local and global challenge (United Nations, 2017)
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