The replacement of appliances and other energy using products by more efficient ones is generally regarded as an effective strategy to reduce energy demand. However, the savings realized by this strategy may be lower than those theoretically expected or calculated from a technological point of...

The challenge of achieving low-carbon communities cannot be underestimated. While government policies set ambitious targets for carbon-reduction over the next 40 years, there remains an urgent need for tools and initiatives to deliver these reductions through behaviour-change among individuals,...

During the UNCED conference in Rio de Janeiro 1992 unsustainable consumption and production patterns were identified as one of the key driving forces behind theunsustainable development of the world (Agenda 21, chapter 4). These consumption and production patterns are based on the European model...

This paper shows how sustainable consumption patterns can spread within a population via processes of social learning even though a strong individual learning bias may favor environmentally harmful products. We present a model depicting how the biased transmission of different behaviors via...

This paper outlines and attempts to develop an original and innovative approach to research on pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) by, for the first time, applying Flyvbjerg´s (2001) call for the development of phronetic social science to this burgeoning empirical subject. Based on this novel...

Ecological Citizenship is a potentially ethic-based motivation for changing behaviour towards more sustainable lifestyles. It describes citizenship as activity taken in the private as well as public sphere, and with regard to a common humanity transcending the boundaries of nation states. This...

Sustainable consumption (SC) and sustainable lifestyles have become prominent areas of environmental discourse and decision-making in recent years, and have been adopted as policy objectives by international agencies, national governments, local authorities, NGOs and citizen's action groups. The...

Regulatorische Anforderungen sind ein europaweit häufig gebrauchtes Policy-Instrument, um den Energieverbrauch im Wohngebäudebereich zu reduzieren. Wir führen qualitative Fall- Analysen der Länder mit niedrigem oder sinkendem Energieverbrauch durch und zeigen, dass diese Strategie effektiv...