Reframing Water Efficiency: Determining Collective Approaches to Change Water Use in the Home

Abstract

Aims: This paper explores the collective ordering of domestic water use, shaped through shared social, technical and natural relations, and outlines how this understanding can be used to inform water efficiency initiatives in order achieve sustainable domestic water consumption. Study Design: Literature review, focus group and qualitative data analysis. Place and Duration of Study: South of England; December 2013. Methodology: Three focus groups were held with consumers in the south of England. Each group comprised of 5-8 participants, strategically sampled for a mix of genders and metered/ unmetered customers, and split by life-stage (where age was used as a proxy; 21-35, 36-50, 50+). In-depth, semi-structured discussion techniques were used to investigate the collective drivers of everyday water use and the impact of water efficiency initiatives in changing patterns of water use in the home. Results: Four key drivers are identified: 1) expectations of service and supply; 2) decision making 3) social norms and networks and 4) socio-technical practices. The findings reveal that while evidence of all drivers are identified in focus group discussions, some offer greater value for intervening in household consumption than others. The discussion uses the example of household laundry to explore the implications of this research for informing water efficiency activities. Conclusion: Achieving sustainable domestic water consumption requires fresh thinking about water use as a collectively ordered activity. The approach taken highlights alternative spaces for intervention and the findings of this research sheds light on the efficacy of existing water efficiency Hoolohan and Browne; BJECC, 6(3): 179-191, 2016; Article no.BJECC.2016.018 180 activities in bringing about more sustainable domestic consumption. The implications of this research are a shift away from providing information and incentives, toward building a more transparent and open relationship with consumers about water resources and developing the resources to identify and address broad social and technological trends that inhibit behavior change. Original Research Article

The water–energy–food nexus at home: New opportunities for policy interventions in household sustainability

“…Existing responses to FOG can be divided into three categories (Hoolohan & Browne, ): ensuring continued service provision, appealing to individual decision‐making, and harnessing social norms and networks. While service provision involves a traditional engineering focus on making the infrastructure work, both individual decision making and social norms and networks seek to engage consumers to modify how they dispose of waste, and hence to reduce the quantity of FOG at source (Table ).…”

“…Service provision approaches involve implementing technical measures to ensure that normal service is maintained in an invisible and uninterrupted way (Hoolohan & Browne, ; see also Spurling et al., ). In principle, sewers could be designed to better facilitate the movement of fat (Mattsson et al., ).…”

Domestic Water Demand During Droughts in Temperate Climates: Synthesising Evidence for an Integrated Framework

“…This may have been because they tended to be wealthier and so could afford to buy more water saving devices for their homes (Kemmelmeier et al 2002;Millock and Nauges 2010;Martinez-Espiñeira 2002). However, experimental or observational studies have shown that even when attitudes towards conservation were very positive, this did not translate to actual behaviour (Barr 2006;Jensen 2008;Dolnicar and Hurlimann 2010;Hoolohan and Browne 2016). Furthermore interviews with unmetered householders, water management teams and regulators in the UK found no evidence of a strong relationship between 'household's attitudes towards water conservation' and 'their actual consumption levels' (Medd 2007).…”

“…The literature review presented above suggests doing so requires an integrative framework that can position demand as arising from the interaction of water use practices with systems of water provision (Medd 2007;Browne et al 2014;Rinaudo 2015). Furthermore, while water use takes place in the home, it connects to different spatial and temporal scales, actors and activities and domestic consumption practices (Hoolohan and Browne 2016). We therefore need to link analysis of water using practices to the range of factors driving 'normal consumption' as well as to potential responses to drought conditions or interventions.…”

Rainwater Harvesting and Social Networks: Visualising Interactions for Niche Governance, Resilience and Sustainability

“…Where such challenges are successful and practices change, steps are achieved towards a transition or shift [19,20]. This is perhaps evident in the case of water efficiency where the majority of water-saving practices (e.g., showering instead of taking a bath) are becoming social norms (in the UK at least), even if approaches to behaviour change are contested [21]. Recent research has focused on the niche level, including advancing the understanding of firm/company-level contributions to sustainability transitions and suggesting approaches to strategic, conceptual and social niche management [22][23][24][25].…”