News review
Sustainable Consumer
Sustainable Research
Cash-saving energy ef?ciency
campaigns push up energy use
New study reveals that money-based campaigns have opposite effect
By Anna Wright
I
nforming and advising
consumers about their
energy use can result in
lower public consumption. But
such campaigns are not effective
if based solely on monetary
savings, new research suggests.
The EU aims to reduce energy
consumption by 20% by 2020,
and a vital part of achieving this
goal is encouraging consumers to
use energy more ef?ciently.
The study analysed the results
of 156 information campaign
experiments involving 525,479
participants in 59 peer-reviewed
studies, between 1975 and 2012.
Overall, information campaigns
were effective, and participants
cut their energy use by an average
of 7.4%. Energy audits and
consultation, when individuals are
informed about their own energy
use and advised on how to lower
their consumption, were the most
effective, with an average
reduction of 13.5%.Providing
comparisons with peers’ energy use
cut consumption by 11.5%.
Strategies that gave information
on money savings or provided
monetary incentives (eg. payments
for reduced energy usage) actually
resulted, on average, in an increase
in energy usage by the participants.
The researchers suggest that
this may be because, if altruistic
reasons such as environmental
concerns are not considered, many
people ?nd the potential gains too
small to act as an incentive.
The researchers also noted that
rates of energy usage slowly
increased under longer studies,
suggesting campaigns may not
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