IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2018 - 24

A successful transition to a more sustainable energy system
will require a wide range of sustainable actions by
diverse people across the globe.

Factors Influencing Sustainable
Energy Behavior
efforts to encourage sustainable energy behaviors will
be more successful when they target important drivers
of such behaviors. These include both individual factors,
such as values, identity, beliefs, and norms, and features
of the contexts in which individuals act, such as access to
information, financial circumstances, and social network
connections. Understanding these influences on behavior
is essential to designing successful sustainable energy programs and policies.

Individual Factors
a first step for any change toward more sustainable energy
behavior is that individuals must be aware of how they use
energy and what changes may lead toward greater sustainability. energy use is rather invisible, and people have only
a limited understanding of the impact of their actions. Most
people underestimate the effect of changes that have large
impacts and overestimate the effect of changes that have small
impacts because of a well-understood phenomena: judgments
are made relative to a reference point (say the energy used by
an incandescent lightbulb), and people tend to underestimate
the difference between the reference and other energy uses.
This is one of many simple heuristics used to assess energy
use, and such heuristics are not always accurate. so people
may lack the information to behave effectively.
Yet while knowledge is important, it is seldom sufficient.
Motivational factors play a key role. of particular interest
are general motivational factors that can affect a wide range
of behaviors, making them an important target for promoting consistent sustainable energy behavior. values are among
the most important general motivational factors influencing
energy behaviors. values are defined as the general goals that
people strive for in their lives, and there are four types most relevant to understanding sustainable energy behavior. Hedonic
values make people focus on what makes them feel good and
on ways to reduce effort, while egoistic values make them
focus on how to increase their resources (e.g., money or status). People focus on ways to benefit others in altruistic values,
while biospheric values make them focus on consequences for
nature and the environment. People around the world endorse
all four types of values to some extent. Yet people prioritize
these values differently, resulting in different perceptions,
preferences, and actions. in general, strong hedonic and egoistic values inhibit sustainable energy behaviors that are often
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perceived to be somewhat personally costly, inconvenient, or
burdensome. in contrast, strong altruistic and particularly
biospheric values generally encourage sustainable energy
behaviors. While values are a powerful force motivating
sustainability behavior, they are hard to change. The extent
to which different values are activated in a particular context
may change more readily, which affects the extent to which
the relevant values influence choices. We come back to this
issue later on.
Personal identity, another general motivational factor, may be especially important in promoting consistent
engagement in sustainable energy behaviors because of the
positive spillover effects referred to previously. When people realize that they engaged in sustainable energy behavior,
they are more likely to see themselves as a person who acts
pro-environmentally (i.e., to have a strong environmental
self-identity), which motivates them to act sustainably again
since people are motivated to be consistent and act in line
with how they see themselves. such a positive feedback process is likely to be very important in the transition to a sustainable energy system.
There are many factors in addition to values and identity that influence sustainable energy behaviors. of course,
prices affect energy behaviors. for example, the low price of
energy and the market's inadequate integration of environmental costs is one reason people do not conserve energy or
switch to renewables, while relatively high prices of sustainable energy innovations can inhibit their adoption.
However, prices are not always as influential as many
assume. Many factors motivate people to reduce the use of
fossil energy that often predict sustainable energy behavior
more strongly than the perceived financial costs and benefits of actions. These include environmental and moral
considerations: people may act sustainably because they
are motivated to protect the environment and the quality
of life of current and future generations. They may engage
in sustainable energy behaviors because doing so makes
them feel good, either because it is pleasurable or they feel
good by being virtuous when engaging in behavior that
benefits others and the environment. They may engage in
sustainable energy behavior for symbolic reasons: doing
so may enhance their social status or fit with how they
would like to see themselves. furthermore, they may act
sustainably because of social norms: they think others
expect them to do so, or they think most others would do
so as well.
january/february 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2018