Drawing On College Student Attitudes and Behaviors to Instigate Energy Efficiency Improvements in Rental Housing

Abstract

Improving the energy efficiency of residential rental properties has been a priority of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County. However, traditional educational programming has had limited effectiveness due to a split incentive dynamic between landlords and tenants relative to property upgrades. We demonstrate that college students have broad interest in but limited knowledge of energy efficiency and are willing to pay a premium for relevant improvements. Our findings indicate that there is strong potential for Extension professionals to engage off-campus housing offices, students, and landlords in the development of modified leases and to facilitate educational programming that specifically addresses rental housing energy efficiency.

Exploring Residential Energy Behaviour of the Younger Generation for Sustainable Living: A Systematic Review

“…Such theory-guided approaches are useful in identifying differences in motivations and perceptions among users, allowing for the creation of personalised strategies for specific groups; however, it is difficult to bridge the gap between intentions and actions. Surveys and interviews assess the impact of multiple variables on the behavioural changes of young people, including socio-demographic factors [13,48,53,54]; attitudes including cognitive and emotional [49,50,55,56,[58][59][60][61], economical [62,65] and environmental [57]; and behaviours [51,52,63,64]. This method quickly collects primary data, and the cost is much lower than the investment in smart devices.…”