IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v5y2013i12p5249-5271d31143.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perspectives on Sustainability: Exploring the Views of Tenants in Supported Social Housing

Author

Listed:
  • Rosalyn A. V. Robison

    (Global Sustainability Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK)

  • Cathrine V. Jansson-Boyd

    (Department of Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK)

Abstract

Government policy aimed at curbing carbon emissions often focusses on encouraging individual action, however the effectiveness of this approach has been limited. Investigations of why this might be have included segmentation, to identify different groups who undertake more or less action, and analysis of various “barriers” to action. Those on lower incomes who are not home owners have previously been found to be less engaged in seeking out energy efficiency information. Working with low-income tenants living in supported social housing we conducted three group interviews, accompanied by a 7-item scale measuring general attitude towards the environment. The interviews were aimed at opening up discussion about environmental and energy issues, including exploring more deeply what, for these participants, underlies barriers to conservation behaviours. We found participants to be very willing to engage in conversation and knowledgeable about a range of relevant issues. Barriers explored include: lack of confidence in existing levels of knowledge, habit, self-interest and lack of agency, and in all cases several different perspectives were voiced by participants. Implications for policy, interventions and public engagement are given, including ways to increase dialogue and reflection on sustainability issues for all sectors of society.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosalyn A. V. Robison & Cathrine V. Jansson-Boyd, 2013. "Perspectives on Sustainability: Exploring the Views of Tenants in Supported Social Housing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(12), pages 1-23, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:12:p:5249-5271:d:31143
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/12/5249/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/12/5249/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barr, Stewart & Gilg, Andrew W & Ford, Nicholas, 2005. "The household energy gap: examining the divide between habitual- and purchase-related conservation behaviours," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1425-1444, July.
    2. Michael Nye & Lorraine Whitmarsh & Timothy Foxon, 2010. "Sociopsychological Perspectives on the Active Roles of Domestic Actors in Transition to a Lower Carbon Electricity Economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(3), pages 697-714, March.
    3. Jenkins, D.P., 2010. "The value of retrofitting carbon-saving measures into fuel poor social housing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 832-839, February.
    4. Dillman, Don A. & Rosa, Eugene A. & Dillman, Joye J., 1983. "Lifestyle and home energy conservation in the United States: the poor accept lifestyle cutbacks while the wealthy invest in conservation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 3(3-4), pages 299-315, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Juan Aranda & Ignacio Zabalza & Andrea Conserva & Gema Millán, 2017. "Analysis of Energy Efficiency Measures and Retrofitting Solutions for Social Housing Buildings in Spain as a Way to Mitigate Energy Poverty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-22, October.
    2. Jessica K. Breadsell & Joshua J. Byrne & Gregory M. Morrison, 2019. "Pre- and Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Resident Motivations for and Experiences of Establishing a Home in a Low-Carbon Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Juan David Gómez-Quintero & Pilar Gargallo Valero & Jesús Miguel Álvarez, 2019. "Who Supports International Development Cooperation in Times of Crisis? Public Opinion in Rural Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boudet, Hilary S. & Flora, June A. & Armel, K. Carrie, 2016. "Clustering household energy-saving behaviours by behavioural attribute," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 444-454.
    2. Nair, Gireesh & Gustavsson, Leif & Mahapatra, Krushna, 2010. "Factors influencing energy efficiency investments in existing Swedish residential buildings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 2956-2963, June.
    3. Sardianou, Eleni, 2007. "Estimating energy conservation patterns of Greek households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3778-3791, July.
    4. Yue, Ting & Long, Ruyin & Chen, Hong, 2013. "Factors influencing energy-saving behavior of urban households in Jiangsu Province," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 665-675.
    5. Mills, Bradford & Schleich, Joachim, 2012. "Residential energy-efficient technology adoption, energy conservation, knowledge, and attitudes: An analysis of European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 616-628.
    6. Stamatios Ntanos & Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos & Garyfallos Arabatzis & Vasilios Palios & Miltiadis Chalikias, 2018. "Environmental Behavior of Secondary Education Students: A Case Study at Central Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-22, May.
    7. Bindu Shrestha & Sudarshan R. Tiwari & Sushil B. Bajracharya & Martina M. Keitsch & Hom B. Rijal, 2021. "Review on the Importance of Gender Perspective in Household Energy-Saving Behavior and Energy Transition for Sustainability," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-18, November.
    8. Hassan Harajli & Ali Chalak, 2019. "Willingness to Pay for Energy Efficient Appliances: The Case of Lebanese Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-20, October.
    9. Urban, Jan & Ščasný, Milan, 2012. "Exploring domestic energy-saving: The role of environmental concern and background variables," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 69-80.
    10. Ce Huang & Jiefang Ma & Kun Song, 2021. "Homeowners’ Willingness to Make Investment in Energy Efficiency Retrofit of Residential Buildings in China and Its Influencing Factors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, February.
    11. Sütterlin, Bernadette & Brunner, Thomas A. & Siegrist, Michael, 2011. "Who puts the most energy into energy conservation? A segmentation of energy consumers based on energy-related behavioral characteristics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 8137-8152.
    12. Wüstenhagen, Rolf & Schleich, Joachim & Rennings, Klaus & Heinzle, Stefanie & Brohmann, Bettina, 2009. "What's Driving Sustainable Energy Consumption? A Survey of the Empirical Literature," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-013, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Mills, Bradford & Schleich, Joachim, 2010. "What's driving energy efficient appliance label awareness and purchase propensity?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 814-825, February.
    14. Murphy, Lorraine, 2014. "The influence of energy audits on the energy efficiency investments of private owner-occupied households in the Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 398-407.
    15. Wang, Bo & Wang, Xiaomeng & Guo, Dongxue & Zhang, Bin & Wang, Zhaohua, 2018. "Analysis of factors influencing residents’ habitual energy-saving behaviour based on NAM and TPB models: Egoism or altruism?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 68-77.
    16. Lillemo, Shuling Chen, 2014. "Measuring the effect of procrastination and environmental awareness on households' energy-saving behaviours: An empirical approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 249-256.
    17. Morgane Innocent & Agnès François-Lecompte & Nolwenn Roudaut, 2020. "Comparison of human versus technological support to reduce domestic electricity consumption in France," Post-Print hal-02450849, HAL.
    18. Klingler, Anna-Lena & Luthander, Rasmus, 2018. "Market diffusion of residential PV and battery systems driven by self-consumption: A comparison of Sweden and Germany," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S18/2018, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    19. Chun-Hsi Vivian Chen & Yu-Cheng Chen, 2021. "Assessment of Enhancing Employee Engagement in Energy-Saving Behavior at Workplace: An Empirical Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-18, February.
    20. Belaïd, Fateh & Ranjbar, Zeinab & Massié, Camille, 2021. "Exploring the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency implementation measures in the residential sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:12:p:5249-5271:d:31143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.