Energy Conservation Behavior Research Articles

Norm proximity and optimal social comparisons for energy conservation behavior

Bottom-up solutions targeting individual energy conservation behaviors can play an important role in mitigating climate change and other environmental problems. Information interventions using social comparisons have proven generally effective at improving conservation behaviors, yet are largely suboptimal and sometimes fail when not adequately designed for their specific context. Environmental managers and policy makers need guidance on behavioral intervention design to maximize effectiveness. This article reports the results of a randomized control trial field experiment that used social comparisons to influence individual electricity conservation behaviors in a unique experimental setting with homogeneous residential units and no economic incentive for subjects to conserve. Two treatment groups receiving information feedback with different social comparison reference points exhibited an average treatment effect of 6 % relative to a control group that did not receive feedback. Moreover, treated subjects whose baseline behavior was more proximate to their relevant comparison group norm exhibited stronger response to the treatment (greater than 10 %) than treated subjects whose baseline behavior was more distant from the relevant norm. These results demonstrate that individuals may be more responsive to social norms when provided with a relevant norm that is more proximate to their baseline behavior. Our findings have important practical implications for optimal design and implementation of behavioral interventions to improve environmental management and achieve energy policy goals.

Research on Energy Conservation Behavior of Public Institution Personnel from the Perspective of “Espoused and Enacted Values”

Literatures on individual energy saving behavior have focused on the households level, while few studies analyzed from the perspective of employees with public institutions as background. To achieve the vision of carbon neutrality, public institutions should play an exemplary and leading role. This paper constructs an energy saving “Espoused and Enacted Values” model to explore the influencing factors of energy saving behavior of staff in public institutions. The results show that organizational attitude has a significant positive effect on individual energy saving behavior. Organizational behavior has a mediating effect between organizational attitude and individual behavior, and the mediating effect is higher than the direct effect. Personal attitude has a significant positive effect on personal behavior, and personal attitude mediates the relationship between organizational attitude and personal behavior. That means on the one hand the energy conservation policy propaganda of the public organization can directly promote energy saving behavior of public institutions personnel and indirectly promote their behavior by transferring the organizational attitude. On the other hand, the policy propaganda contributes to the execution of substantial energy management activities, which will further affect the energy conservation behavior of the staff in public institutions.

Uncovering urban residents’ electricity conservation and carbon reduction potentials in megacities of China–A systematic path of behavioural interventions

The ratio and quantity of residential electricity consumption in China are increasing steadily with the country's economic development; conservation of electricity consumption has special significance for reduction of carbon emissions. Based on data from 635 questionnaire surveys in four typical Chinese megacities (Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Guiyang), this study analysed the determinants of residential electricity consumption and electricity saving behaviours using the multivariate regression method, estimated the price elasticities of heterogeneous resident groups by combining the results of an elasticity formula and a multinomial logit model, and assessed residential electricity conservation potential. The results were as follows: economic indicators proved to be the factors most strongly influencing residential energy conservation behaviours; electricity elasticity varied significantly among heterogeneous demographic and income groups towards economic intervention instruments, within a scale of 0.16-0.63; and price interventions can effectively reduce residential electricity demand and reduce carbon emissions from electricity use by 3.2%-9.3%, thereby improving energy conservation. An appropriate policy mix should be adopted to reduce household carbon emissions effectively, including addressing regional disparities and expanding ladder price differences across different income groups to fulfil every resident's well-being, along with increased publicity and education efforts to improve people's energy-saving awareness in the long term.

Analysis of Employees’ Energy Conservation Behaviour in the Office Buildings—Based on the Structural Equation Model

Energy consumption and climate change have become an urgent task for economic and social development around the world. Building energy consumption and the indoor environment are largely influenced by users’ behaviours. Recently, more and more attention has been paid to users’ behaviour towards energy saving. By issuing questionnaires, this paper investigates the relationship between energy saving willingness, energy saving perception, and energy saving behaviour of office workers. The result shows that psychological factors such as that environmental values, energy saving knowledge, perception of behaviour control, and preference can indirectly affect employees’ energy saving behaviours. Psychological ownership and subjective norms have no obvious effect on promoting energy-saving behaviours. Besides, factors of policy, atmosphere, and publicity have significant effects on energy saving behaviours. Factors such as working age, education, and occupation can significantly promote employees’ energy-saving behaviours.

Reexamine the relationship between new environmental paradigm and low-carbon consumption behavior

Carbon emission is an important cause of ecological imbalance and environmental pollution. Environmental issues such as energy consumption and carbon emissions caused by rapid economic development are important content that must be controlled at present. Reducing energy consumption in daily life is one of the most important energy-saving measures in densely populated cities. This study analyzed the environmental attitude of Shanghai citizens and the life energy-saving strategies promoted by the local government and found that the fulfillment of energy-saving behavior in daily life depends on people’s awareness of ecological balance and the degree of energy crisis. At the same time, the study found that energy-saving through building energy conservation, public resources and control of living consumption to promote the balanced development of ecology. The implementation of building energy conservation, electricity conservation, control of living consumption and other energy conservation behavior are also important ways to save energy.

The Climate Change Dilemma: How Cooperation Beliefs Influence Energy Conservation Behavior

Despite widespread belief in anthropogenic climate change and high levels of concern about its consequences, behavioral changes necessary to adequately address climate change appear difficult to achieve. This concern–behavior gap is often explained by the public goods character of climate change mitigation, which is associated with a high individual incentive to take a free ride when possible. This paper examines cooperation beliefs and their impact on individuals’ energy conservation behavior. Analyzing data from the European Social Survey, it appears that cooperation beliefs are rather low in Europe and that most people do not expect others to limit their energy use to help mitigate climate change. This low trust contrasts with individuals’ reported level of energy conservation behavior and the general high level of energy conservation in most European countries. This trust gap has important implications for pro-environmental behavior as high trust in others’ pro-environmental behavior fosters individuals’ attempts to save energy.

The influence of different efficacy constructs on energy conservation intentions and climate change policy support

This study examines how different efficacy constructs – self efficacy, personal outcome expectancy, collective efficacy, and collective outcome expectancy – independently influence willingness to engage in personal energy conservation behavior and support for policies to address climate change. Data from a representative, cross-sectional survey of 23 countries, European Social Survey Round 8, was analyzed to test the relationship. Overall, the results demonstrated that self efficacy, personal outcome expectancy, and collective outcome expectancy were all positively associated with both behavioral intention and policy support. Results regarding collective efficacy were unstable. The results demonstrate the importance of clearly distinguishing different constructs of efficacy beliefs from each other and suggest how climate change communication efforts may benefit from focusing on particular efficacy factors.

Distinct lymph node entry efficiencies for CD8+ and CD4+ T cells are eliminated during malnourishment.

Abstract Previous work suggests that glucocorticoids upregulate expression of CD127, an IL-7 receptor component, on peripheral naïve T cells (NT), even though the total number of peripheral NT declines dramatically during malnourishment. We proposed that CD127 up-regulation contributes to peripheral NT reduction by increasing the scavenge rate of IL-7, providing a mechanism to rapidly adjust the total number of NTs during malnutrition. Each malnourished NT would then receive a larger dose of IL-7 than control NTs. We next wondered if this larger dose might confer additional energy-saving behaviors. NT migration across HEV’s may be a high energy-consuming activity. Thus, we compared lymph node entry rates of adoptively-transferred malnourished and control NT in malnourished and control recipients. Control CD4+ NTs migrated more efficiently than control CD8+ NT, but malnourished CD4+ and CD8+ NT migrated at equivalent rates, regardless of recipient diet. We next analyzed expression of proteins known to be involved in NT migration to uncover the currently unknown mechanisms responsible for these various migration patterns. Flow cytometry analysis revealed malnutrition significantly reduces expression of both components of LFA-1 (CD18 and CD11a), CD49d (a VLA-4 component), and S1PR1 in CD4+ and CD8+ NT. We also compared expression levels of ICAM-1 (CD54), a protein expressed in HEV’s which binds to LFA-1 on migrating NT, in malnourished and control lymph node tissue via confocal microscopy. Improved understanding of altered migration molecule expression during malnourishment should enhance our knowledge of the energy-conserving behavior of NT, as well as uncover strategies to improve vaccination responses in malnourished children.

Political promotion events and energy conservation decisions: Evidence from China

Abstract Considering political promotion events in China, we investigate how politicians affect the energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) behaviors of local firms. We find that political promotion significantly increases ECER and that this effect is particularly pronounced for firms with political connections and firms facing high financial constraints. We also explore a possible mechanism underlying this relationship: firms engaging in ECER for political reasons may be rewarded with additional government subsidies. Overall, this study sheds light on the determinants of firms' ECER from the perspective of the career concerns of local politicians and the economic consequences of ECER.

Is imperfect evaluation a deterrent to adoption of energy audit recommendations?

PurposeEnergy-efficiency leads to productivity gains as it can lower operating and maintenance costs, increase production yields per unit of manufacturing input and improve staff accountability. Implementation of energy-efficient technologies amongst industries, the factors influencing them and the barriers to their adoption have been the subject of several studies during the past three to four decades. Though energy-use behaviours of individuals or households are sufficiently explored, industrial energy conservation behaviour is scarcely studied. This study identifies the relationship between the different behavioural elements to open up a door for behaviourally informed intervention research.Design/methodology/approachTotal interpretive structural modelling technique was used to determine the relationship between different elements of the behaviour of energy managers. Expert responses were collected to understand the relationship between the behavioural elements, through telephone interviews.FindingsThe study identified the relationship between the behavioural elements and found imperfect evaluation as the key element with the highest driving power to influence other elements.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors postulate that a behaviourally informed intervention strategy that looks into the elements with high driving power such as imperfect evaluation, lack of focus on energy-saving measures and the lack of sharing energy-saving objectives can lead to: an increase in the adoption of energy efficiency measures and thereby a reduction in the energy efficiency gap; greater productivity gains and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; Preparation of M&V protocol that incorporates behavioural, organisational and informational barriers.Social implicationsVarious policy level interventions and regulatory measures in the energy field which did not address the behavioural barriers are found unsuccessful in narrowing the energy-efficiency gap, reducing the GHG gas emissions and global warming. Understanding the key driving factor of behaviour can help to design an effective intervention strategy to address the barriers to energy efficiency improvement.Originality/valueUnderstanding the key driving factor of behaviour can help to design an effective intervention strategy to address the barriers to energy efficiency improvement. This study argues that through the systematic analysis of the imperfect evaluation of energy audit recommendations, it is possible to increase the adoption of energy efficiency measures that can lead to greater productivity gains and reduced GHG emissions.

Tackling Energy Poverty Through Behavioral Change: A Pilot Study on Social Comparison Interventions in Social Housing Districts

Behavioral Economics has in recent years played a key role in informing the design of non-price interventions aimed at promoting energy conservation behaviors in residential housing. Some of the most influential contributions of the discipline in an applied setting have centered around the development of norm-based interventions. The success that these interventions have had in specific contexts presents an opportunity to exploit them as tools for tackling a prevalent type of poverty at the EU level: energy poverty. Recent contributions to the literature highlight the role of inefficient energy behavior as a significant driver of this particular type of poverty, which is characterized by an inability to afford the basic energy services necessary to guarantee a decent standard of living. Therefore, the effectiveness of norm-based interventions in vulnerable populations merits further investigation to determine whether this approach can suitably address the behavioral components of energy poverty by promoting efficient energy consumption and conservation efforts. This study reports on a pilot conducted in an exemplary social housing context (located in Bolzano, Italy) with the aim to assess the effectiveness of social comparison interventions in energy vulnerable groups. Our investigated cohort covers an initial small sample of apartments with a large representatives of elderly individuals and other energy-vulnerable groups. Using a design that combines appeals to injunctive and descriptive norms embedded within In-Home Devices (IHD) in recently retrofitted homes, our objective is to set a basis for the assessment of effectiveness of these types of interventions in social housing populations. Our study seeks to provide useful methodological insights to policy makers on how to effectively design behaviorally informed interventions aimed at tackling energy poverty. Despite the current data limitations, our results do seem to suggest that uniformly applied norm-based interventions may have potentially backfiring effects in small-scale implementations. Therefore, they suggest that attention needs to be paid to household composition and pre-existing levels of consumption, when designing behavior-change interventions in these groups.JEL Classification: C93; D03; D04; D12; D19; D91; Q40.

Introduction

Energy conservation in universities is significant to sustainable development, and students' behaviors hold great potential for green university development. However, few studies focused on the diversity and causality of energy-conservation behaviors (ECBs) among university students, as well as behavior differences in social characteristics. In this study, university students' ECBs were defined, including habitual ECBs, restricted ECBs, and interpersonal ECBs through literature reviews. A theoretical model of behavior causality was constructed based on the refined theory of planned behavior. Four hundred and thirty-nine questionnaire data verified the hypothesized causality using a structural equation model. Diversities in social characteristics on behavior paths and determinants were explained through multi-group analysis and one-way analysis of variance. Results show that: (1) ECBs are all affected by comfort preference and perceived self-efficacy, and perceived self-efficacy is the most critical facilitator; (2) the determinants and their importance of ECBs vary with the behavior types; (3) the effect of comfort preference, energy-conservation value, and perceived self-efficacy acting on habitual ECBs are completely mediated by energy-conservation intention; (4) gender, grade, and discipline have no moderating effect on behavior paths, while they have significant differences in behaviors and factors, and it emphasizes the necessity to focus on males, higher grades, and social science students. This work generated fresh insight into the causality of students’ ECBs and differences of behaviors and determinants in social characteristics, which make contributions to the development of ECB-related theories. Besides, some theoretical references for university administrators were provided to develop energy management measures.

A review on motivational nudges for enhancing building energy conservation behavior

The Journal of Smart Environments and Green Computing is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal which provides a forum for the publication of papers addressing the variety of theoretical, methodological, epistemological, empirical and practical issues. The following topics are especially welcome: green computing, sustainable computing, energy efficiency, decision making, green cloud computing, smart cities, renewable energy, smart environments, etc.

Self-propelled sessile droplets on a superheated and heterogeneous wetting surface

In this study, we investigated self-propelled sessile droplet evaporation on superheated surfaces with mixed wetting patterns. The primary reason for droplet motion was an increase in surface temperature and the difference in surface energy, which affected the moving contact line and moved droplets close to the wetting regions and then out to the heating surface. In this study, we observed that increases in temperature significantly influenced the changes in surface adhesion force. The force balance equation was used to demonstrate the existence of a moment of droplet movement. In addition, temperature data demonstrated energy conservation behaviour. The heterogeneous wetting surface exhibited greater differences in energy because of the energy expended during liquid–vapour phase transition and droplet movement.

Effectiveness of energy conservation awareness package on energy conservation behaviors of off-campus students in Nigerian universities

Poor energy conservation behaviors among off-campus students are a form of irrational behavior that often results in erratic power supply within the students' village. The present study, therefore, explored the effectiveness of energy conservation awareness package (ECAP) on energy conservation behaviors of off-campus students residing within students' villages of Nigerian Universities. A pretest-posttest experimental and waitlist control group which involved 328 participants were quantitatively assessed. Findings of the posttest depict that poor energy conservation behavior of off-campus students momentously weaken compared to a waitlist control group. This is evident where the mean difference of 33.35 on level of engaging in energy conservation behavior for students exposed to ECAP is greater than 1.20 for those not exposed to the therapy. Also, 27.97 mean difference on likelihood of engaging in energy conservation behavior is greater than 0.54 for those not exposed to the therapy. In extension, results of 2 and 4-months follow-up appraisal proved that the momentous decline in negative energy conservation behavior of ECAP participants was upheld. By implication, when off-campus students subscribe to the use of energy-saving bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs and switching off the unnecessary lightings among others as evident in this study would go a long way in conserving energy.

ANALYSIS OF ENERGY CONSERVATION BEHAVIOR AT THE KUWAITI ACADEMIC BUILDINGS

Understanding user’s behavior in buildings is crucial since user behavior significantly contributes to the overall building's energy consumption. Therefore, this study aims to identify a user's pro-environmental behavior, in particular, the energy conservation behavior (ECB) of university users in Kuwait. For this reason, this study creates a model whereby two variables, namely, environmental knowledge and awareness of consequences, are introduced and incorporated into the existing theory of planned behavior (TPB). The research data is acquired through questionnaires in keeping with Kuwait's social norms and culture. The extended TPB model is tested using numerical analysis problems in partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to investigate the following variables: energy conservation behavior, intention, subjective norm, attitude, perceived behavioral control, environmental knowledge, and awareness. Results show the indirect effects of the two above mentioned variables on conservation behavior. The results also reveal that societal pressure and cultures significantly affect the users' intention to engage in energy conservation behavior. The outcomes of this research suggest that there is a need to encourage energy conservation behavior changes in Kuwaiti academics' buildings by supporting the antecedents, as well as eliminating barriers to pro-environmental actions. Keywords: Energy Conservation, Environmental Behavior, Higher Educational Institutes, Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling, Theory of Planned Behavior JEL Classifications: Q49, P36, I230, Z130 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.10407

Does Haze Drive Pro-Environmental and Energy Conservation Behaviors? Evidence from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area in China

Humans conduct themselves in relation to energy use; energy use has degraded air quality, as reflected by haze occurrence in countries such as China. Improving the population’s involvement in environmental and energy conservation necessitates understanding their motivation to behave under haze. Considering the social problems caused by haze conditions in China, this study used people’s risk perception as a basis to determine their motivations to perform pro-environmental and energy-saving behaviors. We analyzed motivation from privately and publicly oriented perspectives as well as adaptive and mitigative behavioral viewpoints. Motivation-related data were collected through face-to-face discussion and a survey of 506 respondents in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, which is one of the most heavily polluted regions in China. We conducted multiple regression analysis to determine the extent to which socio-demographic characteristics and risk perception concerning haze predict motivation and actual behavior. Results showed that these factors explain 36.8% and 30.5% of privately and publicly oriented motivations, respectively, but more strongly explain more adaptive (i.e., privately oriented; 55.0%) than mitigating (i.e., publicly oriented; 8.8%) behaviors. Although the residents are motivated to behave equally for private and public purposes in initial conservation efforts, they tend to exhibit adaptive behavior more frequently than mitigating behaviors. These results serve as a reference in encouraging China’s residents to act pro-environmentally and use energy conservatively, thereby contributing to environmental and energy saving education for the society.

Smart meter‐based home energy report: Design and operation of automatic generation system of hourly usage indication message

AbstractHome Energy Report (HER) is gathering attention as a method to promote energy conservation behavior in residential sector. Most of the existing efforts about HER assume the use of total monthly usage data. These usually compare customers’ monthly usages with that of similar neighbors. In our study, we developed a HER that uses smart meter data to give graphical information on customers’ monthly, weekly, daily and hourly electricity usages. In the smart meter‐based HER, the graphs that show hourly usage patterns are applied the method of automatically generating a message commenting the time zone to be paid attention by each customer. The automatic generation method uses smart meter data and several types of baseline hourly usages to analyze which time zone each customer should pay attention. In this paper, we provide a detailed explanation about the structure of the automatic generation method, and show analysis results of how the method have been worked by using the HER generation log data of approximately forty thousand households for twelve months.

Analysis of critical factors and their interactions influencing individual’s energy conservation behavior in the workplace: A case study in China

Energy conservation in the building sector is a major target worldwide, and individual’s energy conservation behavior is considered a critical means to meet energy conservation goals. Although individual’s energy conservation behavior has been explored, its formation mechanism in the workplace remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the effect of the determinants of energy conservation behavior in the workplace based on the extended theory of planned behavior model. The novelty of this study is that it extends the theory of planned behavior with the consideration of actual behavior controls. This study is also one of the first studies to identify the effect of user experience on energy saving behavior. Questionnaire survey was used for data collection, and structural equation modeling was applied to develop the structural model. Results show that individual’s comfort is the most critical impact factor, followed by user experience and supervision. Intention has a limited effect on energy saving behavior. Moreover, three strategies were proposed to promote energy conservation behavior in the workplace from the perspectives of design, supervision, and punishment. These findings will not only help researchers in conducting further in-depth research on the mechanism of individual’s energy conservation behavior but also practitioners in proposing other effective strategies to promote energy conservation behavior.

Impact of Demographic, Psychological Attributes and Financial Consciousness of Households on their Energy Conservation Behavior: Testing the Mediating Role of Behavioral Intention

The implementation of energy sustainable practices is acknowledged to be a vital step towards resolving the problem of energy shortage. However, the energy conservation behavior of households in developing countries has not gained much attention. Therefore, this research aims to examine the effect of psychological attributes and financial consciousness on the energy conservation behavior of residential individual in the presence of behavioral intentions. For the purpose of this study, we performed a regression analysis on the data set collected through a questionnaire survey of 310 residential individuals in Lahore, Pakistan. Results reveal that the psychological attributes and financial consciousness of the households have a significant effect on their energy conservation behavior. Further, the findings of the study establish a significant mediating role of households' behavioral intentions towards energy conservation. The findings of this study suggest that media campaigns and energy conservation seminars should emphasize the adoption of energy-saving technologies.