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- Selvefors, Anneli, 1983
(författare)
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Understanding Energy Behaviour – A Necessity for Supporting Domestic Energy Conservation through Design
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Domestic energy consumption is continuing to increase and the need to decrease consumption is growing more evident. In this research, two studies were conducted to further the understanding of domestic energy behaviour and increase the knowledge of how energy conservation can be supported. The first study was carried out as an interview study to explore both factors that influence people’s energy behaviour and strategies people currently have adopted for reducing consumption. The second study was a field trial that assessed the extent to which an energy feedback system could support households in reducing their consumption.The findings show that many different factors, i.e., factors related to the person, the activity, and the society, influence people’s domestic energy behaviour as well as their engagement in reducing their energy consumption. As these factors collectively set the preconditions for people’s energy behaviour, it is vital to take into account the interconnection of the different factors when aiming to support energy conservation. For systems and products to be successful in supporting energy conservation, they need to match the preconditions in a way that enables people to reduce consumption while still satisfying their everyday needs and goals. As this research have indicated, energy feedback systems can support motivated people who have the ability and possibility to reduce consumption, but will be a less successful support system for people whose consumption is governed by preconditions that they cannot, or will not, change. A holistic understanding of people’s preconditions and their energy related activities is thus required in order to develop successful products, services, and systems that enable, facilitate, or encourage more people to reduce their domestic energy consumption.
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| 2. |
- Selvefors, Anneli, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Design for Sustainable Behaviour: A Toolbox for Targeting the Use Phase
- 2014
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Ingår i: Eco-design tool conference, May 14-15 2014, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Several studies have concluded that the use phase, including people’s use behaviour, is a large contributor to the environmental impact of many products. Some eco-design tools mention the use phase as a possible target area, but there is a lack of methods that specifically address how to lower its environmental impact. Thus, this contribution presents a toolbox that enables companies to influence user behaviour to reduce the negative environmental impact during the use phase; we call this the Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB) toolbox. The main tool in the toolbox comprises five types of strategies for the design of products and services. Enlighten strategies influence users’ knowledge, values, attitudes and norms, e.g. an eco-driving support system. Spur strategies encourage users to perform sustainable behaviours, e.g. through external rewards, punishments or competitions. Steer strategies guide users by making sustainable behaviour the evident choice, physically or cognitively, e.g. a refrigerator steering the placement of food to optimize preservation. Force strategies compel a sustainable behaviour upon the users, e.g. a washing machine that automatically adds the right amount of detergent. Match strategies adapt products and services to users’ current behaviours, e.g. start–stop systems in cars. A comparative study of different types of strategies shows that they have the potential to be effective in influencing users’ behaviour and to be accepted by consumers. The toolbox is utilized by employing its main tool and supporting tools (e.g. user studies and personas) in a design process focusing on users and their behaviour. This may mean a shift of eco-design efforts from later to earlier stages of the development process, which enables greater opportunities for radical environmental gain through design, as it is in the early stages that the environmental impact of products is largely determined. Different tools from the toolbox have been applied in a number of R&D cases in industry. For instance, Eliq Online, a home energy management system verified to support energy reductions have been developed by Exibea, and novel product concepts to reduce household’s energy use and to avoid food waste have been developed for IKEA and Electrolux. Apart from the evident advantage of encouraging sustainable behaviours, and thus reducing resource use, the DfSB toolbox can also spur innovation and provide a way to differentiate on saturated markets.
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