New Tools for Environmental Protection Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures (2002) / Chapter Skim
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3. Marketing Household Energy Conservation: The Message and the Reality
3. Marketing Household Energy Conservation: The Message and the Reality
Pages 49-66
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From page 49... ...
I first consider why the conservation of energy periodically has been identified as a public good and policy goal. Understanding shifting motivations helps us understand why the serious social marketing of EC actually has been quite rare in the United States and why its effects have been highly variable.
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From page 50... ...
Under DSM, the policy logic saw EC as the "least cost" source of energy supply with efficiency investments essentially allowing repurchase of energy from existing users at costs lower than new sources of supply. Social marketing under DSM focused on self-interest and bill reduction, sometimes with financial incentives included.
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From page 51... ...
As noted, over the past two decades, social marketing of EC has received little serious, well-funded, carefully targeted, or persistent attention in the United States. But with that said, and despite continuing general pessimism among energy policy analysts about the potential for household conservation response, we have observed recent significant reductions in energy use in California (as much as 10 to 12 percent)
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From page 52... ...
Public opinion polls in the 1970s and 1980s and again in 2001 found that most persons believe energy problems are real, but generally attribute them to utility and government failures, rather than consumer behavior. At the same time, the public has consistently shown support for renewable energy and conservation, and has viewed energy use as something that could be better managed by consumers (e.g., Farhar et al., 1980; Farhar, 1993~.
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From page 53... ...
This view of social marketing cares little about attitude-altering messages, but is concerned with crafting appeals, information, and motivators that encourage and reward specific conserving actions (turning off the lights, limiting the use of hot water, closing unoccupied rooms) , and discourage nonconserving actions.
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From page 54... ...
The frequent failure of incentives alone to induce conservation behavior has been traced to poor economic/energy information and the fact that different subgroups of consumers are differentially attracted by various inducements, leading to the ironic conclusion that "the stronger the financial incentives are, the more important the nonfinancial factors especially marketing become to a program's success" (Stern et al., 1986:162~. But virtually none of these EC interventions were undertaken for long enough or with enough impetus to reveal the upper bound of possible effect.
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From page 55... ...
, there has been a dramatic decline in social psychological EC studies despite the fact that these are obviously useful in developing policy (Coltrane et al., 1986~.6 Some have suggested that, even in the absence of a well-developed model of behavior, it still might be possible to at least consider the relative EC effects of various program, incentive, and information combinations. Although the necessary data are not readily available, it is fair to say that EC social marketing efforts in the 1970s and more recently in 2001, when coupled with other policy initiatives and motivating events, might be expected to produce energy savings in the neighborhood of 10 percent.
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From page 56... ...
Often the cultural categories useful for understanding social worlds not only conceal energy flows, but demand actions that are nonconserving. Social identities are at stake in those worlds, and serious issues of respectability, authority, and stigma are implicit in even the most routine energy-using behaviors such as cleaning, bathing, or entertaining.
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From page 57... ...
All of these processes, in the hands of skilled agents of change, work together to effectively counteract social marketing messages about conservation.~° Impetus Finally, for social marketing in support of EC to be successful, there has to be some impetus for change some sponsorship for conservation. With ample energy supplies, low prices, little interest in the global climate consequences of expanded energy use, lack of a "green" political party, and stalemate on environmental policies between the executive and legislative branches, there has been a lack of federal sponsorship for EC (Lutzenhiser, 2001a)
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From page 58... ...
has produced some provocative preliminary findings about how to make the label more effective through the use of better graphical presentation of energy data, and a recent comprehensive label redesign project in India shows that a good deal more effective social marketing can take place through that vehicle (Dethman et al., 2000~. A hybrid experiment might also test the labeling of energy sources (such as fossil, renewables, conservation)
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From page 59... ...
There are also a number of good literature reviews and metatheoretical articles synthesizing empirical work on human energy use and conservation behavior and critically evaluating various approaches to understanding and influencing that behavior. Key sources include previous National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council studies on energy and society (National Research Council, 1984)
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From page 60... ...
; specialized reviews of research on conservation behavior change (Katzev and Johnson, 1987; Black et al., 1985; Stern, 1992) ; and several reviews more narrowly focused on particular subtopics in the area, including work on public opinion on energy and conservation (Farhar, 1993)
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From page 61... ...
. Scattered researchers in the energy system and academic communities continue to offer interesting findings at the biennial American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy conferences (e.g., Lutzenhiser and Goldstone, 2000)
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From page 62... ...
Proceedings, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
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From page 63... ...
Layne 1988 The consumer's energy information environment. Proceedings of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
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From page 64... ...
Gossard 2000 Lifestyle, status and energy consumption. Proceedings, American Councilfor an Energy Efficient Economy.
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From page 65... ...
Report to the Universitywide Energy Research Group and the California Energy Commission, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA. Socolow, R.H., and R.C.
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