Theme 3: Understanding and Influencing Pro-environmental Behaviour
Research Programme 06/07
EV02004 Review of EAF projects
To investigate the work of the 35 EAF funded VCS organisations carrying out projects to promote sustainable consumption and production, providing evaluation of keys lessons on effective behaviour change; barriers and opportunities for successful processes; and recommendations for policy developments.
EV02020 ESRC Studentship: Sustainable Consumption PhD
To investigate ‘sustained’ behaviour change from an empirical perspective. This PhD project is underway and investigates the complex networks that contribute to encouraging sustainable consumption behaviours.
EV02025 Public understanding of sustainable finance and investment
The research involved 14 focus group discussions to understand the public’s views on sustainability with specific relation to links to finance and investment decisions.
EV02045 Public understanding of sustainable consumption of food
The research involved focus group discussions to understand the public’s views on sustainability with specific relation to links to food. The objectives for this programme of work fell into two main areas - exploratory and reactive. The exploratory objectives were to understand:
- Consumer aspirations around food
- Influences on current purchase decisions, and where environmental and social factors fit in
- Consumer perceptions and understanding of ‘good food’, and where sustainability fits within this
- Current, spontaneous understanding of the concept of sustainable consumption and production of food
- Expectations of the role played by government, retailers and producers in ensuring the production, supply and consumption of sustainable food
The reactive (or prompted) objectives were to understand:
- How consumers respond to the idea of sustainable consumption of food, including levels of acceptability and barriers towards the five specific behaviour goals
- The impact of information, including whether and how new information impacts on consumers, if consumers views on whether and how the provision of information could influence food purchasing decisions e.g. labelling schemes, provision of information on pack or elsewhere and responses to product-based case studies
EV02046 Public understanding of sustainable energy consumption in the home
The six key objectives of this research project were to assess:
- Current consumer attitudes towards energy
- Current consumer attitudes towards lifestyle changes
- Linkages between sustainability goals and other drivers
- Reception to sustainable energy information
- Segmented responses to behaviour goals
- How behaviour goals may be realised
A qualitative, deliberative approach to investigating these objectives was used.
EV02047 Public understanding of sustainable leisure and tourism
The aim of this project was to develop the evidence base for understanding the public and consumer views relating to sustainable leisure and tourism. The key questions the research addressed were:
- What do consumers and non consumers understand more and less sustainable forms of leisure and tourism to be?
- What leisure and tourism aspirations do consumers and non-consumers have for the future?
- How does this understanding and these aspirations vary according to factors such as demographics, travel frequency, travel history, life stage and environmental activity?
- Who is held to be responsible for taking action to address the problems associated with leisure and tourism on a mass scale?
- What triggers and barriers are there to adopting a more sustainable future?
- What behaviour change might consumers and non consumers be willing to undertake and under what circumstances?
EV02048 Public understanding of sustainable transport
Defra commissioned research into ‘public understanding of sustainable transport’ in order to contribute to the developing evidence base on sustainable consumption whilst working closely with Department for Transport. Objectives of this research include
- provide evidence about how far the public appreciates that its transport and travel choices influence climate change;
- to identify the response to a range of behaviours aiming to reduce people’s personal transport-related carbon emissions;
- to identify the acceptability of these alternative behavioural choices to the public.
- To identify misconceptions and confusions in the way the public conceptualises the transport and climate change
- to identify who they would most readily turn to for information about making effective climate-beneficial consumer choices.
EV02051 Innovative approaches to sustainable consumption
This research project was commissioned by Defra to provide a robust evidence-base detailing innovative approaches for influencing behaviours, within and beyond the environmental field, that offer strong potential for transferable demonstration in England within the impact areas of homes, food, transport and tourism. From this evidence recommendations for programme design, evaluation and learning, and delivery are taken.
EV02052 Innovative approaches: Workshops
A research project to identify ways forward for the EAF, in terms of developing:
- Recommendations from sound evidence on behaviour change, both thinking and practice, in SD and other fields;
- Approaches and delivery models that are relatively untested so far in the UK, or in SCP;
- Take account of behaviour change innovation in other government backed programmes;
- Focus on the priority areas of homes, food, transport and tourism identified by the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable in I will if you will.
EV02065 Synthesis report
Each of the five public understanding of sustainable consumption project reports (EV02025, and EV02045 - EV02048) explore the acceptability and feasibility of behaviour goals identified in the Pro-Environmental Behaviour Scoping Report (Defra, 2006). The synthesis report identified commonalities and differences in motivators and barriers to action for each behaviour goal. It also considered the extent to which these are audience specific and look for similarities across segments. The report examined public expectations and assumptions of business and government in each of the key areas of food, tourism and leisure, energy use in the home, finance and investment, and transport, and considered whether they are reflected across the projects.
Page last modified: 24 January 2008
Page published: 22 October 2007