Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels

Two field experiments examined the effectiveness of signs requesting hotel guests’
participation in an environmental conservation program. Appeals employing descriptive
norms (e.g., “the majority of guests reuse their towels”) proved superior
to a traditional appeal widely used by hotels that focused solely on environmental
protection. Moreover, normative appeals were most effective when describing
group behavior that occurred in the setting that most closely matched individuals’
immediate situational circumstances (e.g., “the majority of guests in this roomreuse
their towels”), which we refer to as provincial norms. Theoretical and practical
implications for managing proenvironmental efforts are discussed.

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Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels

Two field experiments examined the effectiveness of signs requesting hotel guests’
participation in an environmental conservation program. Appeals employing descriptive
norms (e.g., “the majority of guests reuse their towels”) proved superior
to a traditional appeal widely used by hotels that focused solely on environmental
protection. Moreover, normative appeals were most effective when describing
group behavior that occurred in the setting that most closely matched individuals’
immediate situational circumstances (e.g., “the majority of guests in this roomreuse
their towels”), which we refer to as provincial norms. Theoretical and practical
implications for managing proenvironmental efforts are discussed.

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Understanding and Motivating Energy Conservation Via Social Norms

The purpose of this 3-year project was to examine the role of normative beliefs in an
individual’s decision to conserve energy. In our proposal we outlined three sets of studies, with
each set to be conducted over the course of a year. In the first set of studies, summarized in our
2002 Yearly Report, we examined the reasons that people gave for conserving energy, and the
role of normative beliefs in energy conservation behaviors. Data for these analyses were based
on random digit dialing telephone surveys of California residents. The second set of studies,
which were summarized in our 2003 Yearly Report, involved the development of conservation
messages that were placed in hotel rooms. A series of five experiments were conducted in
California and Arizona. The results from these studies clearly indicate that messages targeting
the normative aspects of energy conservation can significantly increase conservation behaviors.
The third and final set of studies, reported below, examined the effectiveness of a normative
feedback intervention for promoting household energy conservation among a diverse sample of
community residents.
Each of the studies involved collaboration between researchers at Arizona State
University (ASU) and California State University, (CSU) San Marcos. Over the course of the
past year, the research teams from ASU and CSU met three times for discussion and planning:
twice in Arizona, and once in Austin, Texas, for the annual meeting of the Society for
Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). Each research team consisted of two graduate
students, and several undergraduate research assistants. The research meetings allowed us an
opportunity to develop research methodology and materials, discuss project activities, and
review and analyze data. Following is a summary of the activities and findings from the third and
final year of the project.

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Evidence from Two Large Field Experiments that Peer Comparison Feedback Can Reduce Residential Energy Usage

By providing feedback to customers on home electricity and natural gas usage with a focus on peer
comparisons, utilities can reduce energy consumption at a low cost. We analyze data from two large-scale,
random-assignment field experiments conducted by utility companies providing electricity (the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District (SMUD)) and electricity and natural gas (Puget Sound Energy (PSE)), in
partnership with a private company, Positive Energy/oPower, which provides monthly or quarterly
mailed peer feedback reports to customers. We find reductions in energy consumption of 1.2% (PSE)
to 2.1% percent (SMUD), with the decrease sustained over time (seven months (PSE) and twelve months
(SMUD)).

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Impact Evaluation of OPOWER SMUD Pilot Study

Information technologies designed to assist and encourage customers to use less energy are increasing in
the industry. OPOWER offers an information program to help customers manage their energy use by
providing reports comparing their energy use to the energy use of other similar households. These energy
reports provide customers with normative comparisons of their current energy use compared to their
neighbors and suggest actions that they can take to reduce their electric use. It is believed that there is a
social driver at work in the presentation of energy use in this comparative fashion. If households learn
they use more energy than their neighbors, it is assumed they will be motivated to reduce energy use and
possibly do more than their neighbors.
OPOWER put this theory to the test with an aggressive experimental design across the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Census blocks were randomly assigned to treatment and control
groups. Thirty-five thousand single-family residential customers in the treatment group received regular
reports over the period of a year on how their energy use compared to their neighbors’ energy use. Fifty
thousand single-family customers in the control group did not receive any reports. The pilot began in
April 2008. Billing data has been collected for all customers since the start of the program, including one
year of billing data from before the test began, to support the impact evaluation of the program.
This report presents Summit Blue’s independent third-party impact evaluation of the SMUD experimental
design pilot conducted by OPOWER. The updated impact evaluation focuses on answering four basic
research questions:
1. Does receiving the reports lead to energy savings?
2. Can the characteristics of large savers be identified?
3. What is the distribution of savings across customers?
4. What is the observed trend for energy savings in the second year of the pilot?

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Billing Feedback As A Means To Encourage Household Electricity Conservation: A Field Experiment in Helsinki

The aim of this experiment was to determine the effects of consumption feedback on residential electricity consumption. About 700 families living in detached houses heated with electricity participated in the experiment. The households were divided into four similar groups: three experimental groups and one control group. During the experiment all experimental groups received bills based on actual consumption –not average bills as before. During the second year groups 2 and 3 received also comparative feedback about their electricity consumption, which included saving tips for group 3. The consumption of all groups increased because of cold weather. However, the increase of the experimental groups was clearly smaller than that of the control group. From the year 1989 to 1991 the consumption increase in the control group was 1%-units more than in group 1 and 3 – 4.7% – units more than in groups 2 and 3. The consumption changes suggest that the billing for actual use did not have some effects on consumption, and that feedback further increased the savings. However, the saving tips did not have effects on consumption any more than the feedback alone. In addition, the final interviews and questionnaires suggest that the new billing system and feedback made people more aware of their consumption. Customers’ responses to the new system were also positive. The two and a half years experiment (1990-1992) was carried out jointly by the Helsinki Energy Board and the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki.

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An Evaluation of a Promotional Campaign By the ESB, Offering Energy-Saving Devices to Night-Saver Electricity Customers

This paper deals with a promotion made by the ESB in 1993, aimed at customers who were using night-saver electricity (both domestic and dairy farmers). They were offered a number of devices at subsidized prices, most of which had an energy saving element.

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Do Savings from Energy Education Exist?

This report provides the first thorough examination of the persistence of energy savings from energy efficiency education. It does so by comparing gas savings for low-income utility customers who received weatherization to similar customers who also received in-home education and a setback thermostat. Enegy use data is analyzed for savings both the first year after treatment and the third year after treatment to compare savings and determine persistence of savings.
This study compares the energy savings for two treatment groups. Weatherization Group households received traditional weatherization based on New York State’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). The Education Plus Group received comprehensive energy management including weatherization, energy education and a setback thermostat; they also participated in an affordable payment plan.
The original first year analysis of the Niagara Mohawk Power Partnerships (PP) Pilot (Harrigan 1992) showed savings of 16.3 percent for the Weatherization Group and 25.5 and 25.9 percent for the two Education Groups. Because some households in the original analysis moved or had data that did not meet certain screening criteria, fewer households were included in this analysis, which changed the first year savings. Based on this new analysis, the Education Plus Group saved 456 therms (23.9 percent) of normalized annual consumption (NAC), and the Weatherization Group saved 255 therms (13.8 percent).
In the third year, the Education Plus Group saved 396 therms (20.1 percent) compared with 220 therms (12.6 percent) for the Weatherization Group. When third year savings for the Education Plus group are compared with the Weatherization Group, savings for the Education Group are almost 60 percent higher. First and third year savings for both groups are significant compared to their pre-treatment consumption. The differences in percent savings (heating and NAC) between the Education and the Weatherization Groups are significant in the first and third years.
Persistence of savings is approximately the same between the two groups. Eighty-five percent of first year savings were still evident in the third year for the Education Plus Group, and 90 percent of the Weatherization Group’s first year savings were evident the third year. The difference in persistence of savings between the groups was not significant.

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Do Customer Information Programs Reduce Household Electricity Demand?—the Irish program

We study empirically the effectiveness of a customer information program to decrease energy demand by increasing efficient
electricity use. This demand side management (DSM) program aims at reducing the lack of information on the customers’ side that
is documented in related literature. We study the Irish DSM program which is particularly well suited to investigate this issue as
strategic behavior is ruled out in this setting for both customers and suppliers. On the customers’ side because information programs
allow only for a limited substitution of own effort. On the producers’ side because the specificity of the Irish case left no room for
strategic behavior. We find that providing customers with information reduced overall electricity demand by roughly 7%, as well as
reducing demand fluctuations over the year. Further, we find that the DSM program had a larger impact upon long run demand,
with consumers’ short run demand behavior not being changed significantly.

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The Effect of Tailored Information, Goal Setting, and Tailored Feedback on Household Energy Use, Energy-related Behaviors, and Behavioral Antecedents

In this multidisciplinary study, an Internet-based tool was used to encourage households (N ¼ 189) to reduce their direct (gas,
electricity and fuel) and indirect energy use (embedded in the production, transportation and disposal of consumer goods).
A combination of tailored information, goal setting (5%), and tailored feedback was used. The purpose of this study was to examine
whether this combination of interventions would result in (i) changes in direct and indirect energy use, (ii) changes in energy-related
behaviors, and (iii) changes in behavioral antecedents (i.e. knowledge). After 5 months, households exposed to the combination of
interventions saved 5.1%, while households in the control group used 0.7% more energy. Households exposed to the interventions saved
significantly more direct energy than households in the control group did. No difference in indirect energy savings emerged. Households
exposed to the interventions adopted a number of energy-saving behaviors during the course of the study, whereas households in the
control group did so to a lesser extent. Households exposed to the interventions had significantly higher knowledge levels of energy
conservation than the control group had. It is argued that if the aim is to effectively encourage household energy conservation, it is
necessary to examine changes in energy use, energy-related behaviors and behavioral antecedents.

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