BARENERGY-Barriers for energy changes among end consumers and households
Type
applied research project
Start Date
01 January 2008
End Date
30 June 2010
URI
Status
completed
Keywords
Energy
Sustainable Development
Energy Efficiency
Consumer Behaviour
Environmental Psychology
Description
The main objective of this project is to develop methods to identify the relevance and strengths of various barriers for energy
behaviour changes among end consumers and households, and to discuss how activities from political authorities, energy
producers and NGOs can overcome these barriers. We will address changes in consumer behaviour along two dimensions.
The first is energy saving and improvement of energy efficiency within households, the second is changes toward more
sustainable and renewable energy technologies. We are also concerned about the relationship between these three
strategies; turn down and switch off, the purchase of energy-efficient appliances, and shift to (more) sustainable energy
carriers. Based upon the state of art we have identified six barriers to energy change among end consumers, ranking from
macro to micro perspectives. 1) Physical and structural barriers. 2)Political barriers, 3) Cultural-normative or social barriers, 4)
Economic barriers, 5)Knowledge based barriers and 6)Individual-psychological barriers We will combine an individual and
institutional approach. This means that individual and household energy behaviour - and changes in this behaviour - can only
be understood by considering individual values, attitudes, norms and knowledge among individuals together with the context
in which this behaviour takes place. We have developed a methodological triangulation with three main empirical approaches.

- Qualitative interviews with strategic stakeholders in the involved countries
- Representative quantitative surveys among
consumers in the countries involved in the project. However, we will also include Greece in this survey in order to focus on
energy related questions in the climate of SE Europe
- Qualitative strategic focus groups among targeted consumer groups in the same countries.

With strategic groups we mean people with different windows of opportunities and people with different social background.
Leader contributor(s)
Member contributor(s)
Luethi, Sonja
Heinzle, Stefanie
Sadeghi, Mozhon
Partner(s)
SIFO - Norwegian Institute for Consumer Research, University of Surrey (UK), TNO (NL), University of Groningen (NL), EDF (F), Central European University (HU), Centre for Sustainable Energy (UK)
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
Energy
Sustainable Development
Energy Efficiency
Consumer Behaviour
Environmental Psychology
Method(s)
Qualitative Interviews
Focus Groups
Quantitative Surveys
Range
HSG Internal
Range (De)
HSG Intern
Principal
EU
Division(s)
Eprints ID
41647
Reference Number
213558

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  • Publication
    Overcoming barriers to energy efficiency in household mobility : A Swiss survey among key players of politics, economy and NGOs
    (ECEEE, 2009-06-04)
    Sadeghi, Mozhon
    ;
    Luethi, Sonja
    ;
    Attali, Sophie
    ;
    Kenya, Tillerson
    Road transport is at present the sector with the second largest energy consumption in the EU. CO2-emissions grew by 20% between 1990 and 2000. To curb this growth, measures such as road pricing and reduced speed limit have been tried out and technological improvements have led to significantly better energy efficiency in car motors. However, strong counteracting trends reduce the expected results, among them increased car weight, bigger engines, and more passenger miles. Thus, to reach more energy efficiency in mobility, a change in behaviour is of primary importance. This paper identifies, in the first part, the relevance and strengths of the barriers for an energy efficient behaviour in the context of household mobility. In the second part, it asks the question of how these barriers can be overcome by activities from key players (political authorities, energy producers and NGOs) and other campaigns directed towards individual consumers and households. It concludes by identifying the main drivers for behaviour change. The paper combines institutional and individual perspectives on consumer behaviour related to energy consumption. It studies both individual and institutional factors and also examines how both may interact in influencing behaviour. The empirical basis of the paper is a qualitative stakeholder survey that was conducted in Switzerland (among six other European countries including Hungary, Norway, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The trans-national survey is carried out in the context of the EU FP7 project BARENERGY (Barriers for energy changes among end consumers and households).
    Type: conference paper
    URL: https://www.eceee.org/static/media/uploads/site-2/library/conference_proceedings/eceee_Summer_Studies/2009/Panel_6/6.399/paper.pdf
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/75959
  • Publication
    Overcoming barriers for energy efficiency in cooking : A transnational survey among key players of politics, economy and NGOs
    (ECEEE, 2009-06-04)
    Luethi, Sonja
    ;
    Sto, Eivind
    ;
    Attali, Sophie
    ;
    Kenya, Tillerson
    Promote the purchase of energy-efficient appliances for example through labelling is one way to promote energy efficiency. The energy consumption is however also strongly, if not even more strongly related to the use phase: An energy efficient labelled appliance can still be used in a not energy-efficient way. Therefore this paper looks at both, the purchase and the use phase. Cooking is for most of the people a daily activity, but just very few think about the energy used for it. The paper identifies the relevance and strengths of the barriers for the purchase of energy efficient appliances as well as for the energy efficient behaviour in the context of cooking. Further, it discusses how activities from key players (political authorities, energy producers and NGOs) can overcome these barriers. Therefore, it particularly examines the potential for change in relation to the windows of opportunities. The main idea behind this theory is that in the everyday life it is difficult for consumers to change behaviour and habits, even if they are well informed and motivated to do so. However, when certain fundamental changes in life are made, people are susceptible for changes on other aspects as well. The empirical basis of the paper is a qualitative survey that was conducted in the context of the EU FP7 project BARENERGY (Barriers for energy changes among end consumers and households). The results presented here have been collected in interviews among stakeholder from policy, business and NGOs in Switzerland.
    Type: conference paper
    URL: https://www.eceee.org/static/media/uploads/site-2/library/conference_proceedings/eceee_Summer_Studies/2009/Panel_8/8.105/paper.pdf
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/75958