The Post-Intervention Persistence of Energy Conservation Behaviors: An Evaluation of the ‘Start Green’ Program

Burns, Samantha; Savan, Beth

doi:10.3390/su10030809

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This study differs from the existing research in two fundamental aspects, both of which concern the assessment of pro-environmental behaviour. Most empirical studies have so far taken into account individual types of behaviour, such as separate waste collection [19], energy conservation [20], or the generally understood pro-environmental behaviour [21]. In this study, pro-environmental behaviour includes several aspects, including the use of renewable energy, waste separation, and the use of public transport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pro-Environmental Behaviour in the European Union Countries

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of the presented research is to assess pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) in European Union countries in 2009 and 2019. The study used a synthetic measure developed using the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) benchmark method. This method enables distinguishing classes and ranks of countries depending on the adopted characteristics. Basic measures of descriptive statistics, i.e., average, standard deviation and the coefficient of variation, were used in the analysis of the data set. The main research question addressed in this study concerns the relationship between the level of PEB and economic, demographic, and educational factors—not only on a micro scale but also from the macroeconomic perspective. The research has revealed a wide variety throughout the European Union (EU-27) countries in terms of pro-environmental behaviour. Sweden, Finland, and Denmark top the ranking, while Malta, Greece, Spain, and Romania are at the bottom of it. Northern European countries can therefore be identified as a group that represents a positive benchmark in terms of PEB across the European Union (EU-27). The correlation between PEB and selected economic, demographic, and education-related variables was also investigated. Country-level PEB is correlated with demographic and economic variables, but it is not correlated with education-related variables.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pro-Environmental Behaviour in the European Union Countries

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, Han et al (2020) explored the influence of normative, affective, and habitual factors on guests' water conservation and towel reuse intentions, and another study revealed the impact of environmental awareness on young vacationers' recycling and conservation intentions [19]. These studies have significant contributions to both promoting sustainable behaviour (e.g., [20]) and building and urban energy performance modelling (e.g., [21,22]). However, the psychological mechanisms behind hotel guests' energy conservation behaviour remain underexplored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological Drivers of Hotel Guests’ Energy-Saving Behaviours—Empirical Research Based on the Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour

Wang

Xie

et al. 2021

Buildings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The hospitality industry is an important energy consumer and carbon emitter. Behaviour-driven energy conservation is a strategy with great promise to strengthen the energy efficiency of hotel buildings. The aim of this study is to explore the driving psychological factors of hotel guests’ energy-saving intentions and behaviours. This paper constructs two extensions of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) with personal norms, past behaviours, and self-determined motivation to explain the guests’ energy-saving behaviour in hotel buildings. This research compares the explanatory power of the original TPB and two extensions with structural equation modelling. The analysis is based on 530 valid, self-reported data from 827 surveyed hotel guests in Shanghai. The analysis suggests that the extended model gains greater explanatory power in predicting the behaviour patterns by employing the above three additional factors. In addition, self-determined motivation presents a more significant impact than other more developed TPB predictors, such as intention and perceived behaviour control. Aside from that, past behaviour replaces attitude as the most critical predictor of hotel energy-saving intention in the extended models. In addition to the existing interventions in office and residential buildings, the research highlights the role of self-determination in hotel energy conservation and further emphasises the long-term benefit of encouraging pro-environmental behaviours in hotel guests. The findings expand the existing research on pro-environmental behaviours and will contribute to energy-saving behaviour intervention in hotel buildings and policy formulations for sustainable hotel operation and maintenance.

show abstract

“…If we had the quantity of information for more fine‐grained analysis, our results would have been more robust. Finally, the extent to which behavior change persists after the intervention has ceased needs investigation (Burns & Savan, 2018 ; Byerly et al., 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic review of conservation interventions to promote voluntary behavior change

Thomas‐Walters

McCallum²,

Montgomery

et al. 2022

Conservation Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding human behavior is vital to developing interventions that effectively lead to proenvironmental behavior change, whether the focus is at the individual or societal level. However, interventions in many fields have historically lacked robust forms of evaluation, which makes it hard to be confident that these conservation interventions have successfully helped protect the environment. We conducted a systematic review to assess how effective nonpecuniary and nonregulatory interventions have been in changing environmental behavior. We applied the Office of Health Assessment and Translation systematic review methodology. We started with more than 300,000 papers and reports returned by our search terms and after critical appraisal of quality identified 128 individual studies that merited inclusion in the review. We classified interventions by thematic area, type of intervention, the number of times audiences were exposed to interventions, and the length of time interventions ran. Most studies reported a positive effect (n = 96). The next most common outcome was no effect (n = 28). Few studies reported negative (n = 1) or mixed (n = 3) effects. Education, prompts, and feedback interventions resulted in positive behavior change. Combining multiple interventions was the most effective. Neither exposure duration nor frequency affected the likelihood of desired behavioral change. Comparatively few studies tested the effects of voluntary interventions on non‐Western populations (n = 17) or measured actual ecological outcome behavior (n = 1). Similarly, few studies examined conservation devices (e.g., energy‐efficient stoves) (n = 9) and demonstrations (e.g., modeling the desired behavior) (n = 5). There is a clear need to both improve the quality of the impact evaluation conducted and the reporting standards for intervention results.

show abstract

The Post-Intervention Persistence of Energy Conservation Behaviors: An Evaluation of the ‘Start Green’ Program

Cited by 7 publications

References 47 publications

Pro-Environmental Behaviour in the European Union Countries

Pro-Environmental Behaviour in the European Union Countries

Psychological Drivers of Hotel Guests’ Energy-Saving Behaviours—Empirical Research Based on the Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour

Systematic review of conservation interventions to promote voluntary behavior change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About