IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/gunefd/2019_018.html

Saving Water at Cape Town Schools by Using Smart Metering and Behavioural Change

Author

Listed:
  • Visser, Martine

  • Booysen, M. J.

  • Brühl, Johanna M.

  • Berger, Kenneth J.

Abstract

The city of Cape Town suffered a severe water crisis in 2018. At the peak of the drought in South Africa’s Western Cape, a randomised control trial at 105 schools investigated the impact of two behavioural interventions to encourage responsible water usage: detailed water usage data feedback from smart meters, and an inter-school competition. Interventions reduced water usage in these schools by 15 to 26%. The information feedback was found to be more effective in reducing night time water use, indicating better water usage by the staff, while the competition was found to be more effective during the day time, indicating better water usage by the pupils. The contrast highlights the way feedback was understood differently by the two groups, with different effects on their assumption of responsibility. This example from Cape Town demonstrates the effectiveness of combining smart technologies with nudges. It provides a model of water conservation interventions for sustainable cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Visser, Martine & Booysen, M. J. & Brühl, Johanna M. & Berger, Kenneth J., 2019. "Saving Water at Cape Town Schools by Using Smart Metering and Behavioural Change," EfD Discussion Paper 19-18, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunefd:2019_018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.efdinitiative.org/sites/default/files/publications/ms_797_dp_19-18.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clee, Mona A & Wicklund, Robert A, 1980. "Consumer Behavior and Psychological Reactance," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 6(4), pages 389-405, March.
    2. Saugato Datta & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2014. "Behavioral Design: A New Approach to Development Policy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 7-35, March.
    3. Daniel Kahneman, 2003. "Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1449-1475, December.
    4. Saugato Datta & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2014. "Behavioral Design: A New Approach to Development Policy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 7-35, March.
    5. repec:aen:journl:ej34-1-04 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Gans, Will & Alberini, Anna & Longo, Alberto, 2013. "Smart meter devices and the effect of feedback on residential electricity consumption: Evidence from a natural experiment in Northern Ireland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 729-743.
    7. Paul J. Ferraro & Michael K. Price, 2013. "Using Nonpecuniary Strategies to Influence Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 64-73, March.
    8. Miriam Bruhn & David McKenzie, 2009. "In Pursuit of Balance: Randomization in Practice in Development Field Experiments," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 200-232, October.
    9. Liu, Ariane & Giurco, Damien & Mukheibir, Pierre & White, Stuart, 2016. "Detailed water-use feedback: A review and proposed framework for program implementation," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PB), pages 140-150.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:rza:wpaper:763 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Rebecca Afua Klege & Martine Visser & Saugato Datta & Matthew Darling, 2022. "The Power of Nudging: Using Feedback, Competition, and Responsibility Assignment to Save Electricity in a Non-residential Setting," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 81(3), pages 573-589, March.
    3. Datta,Saugato & Miranda Montero,Juan Jose & Zoratto,Laura De Castro & Calvo-Gonzalez,Oscar & Darlingm,Matthew & Lorenzana,Karina Josephine Orduna, 2015. "A behavioral approach to water conservation: evidence from Costa Rica," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7283, The World Bank.
    4. Sanjit Dhami & Ali al-Nowaihi, 2018. "Rationality in Economics: Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 6872, CESifo.
    5. Victor I. Espinosa & William Hongsong Wang & Jesús Huerta de Soto, 2022. "Principles of Nudging and Boosting: Steering or Empowering Decision-Making for Behavioral Development Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Jan Ostermann & Derek Brown & Axel Mühlbacher & Bernard Njau & Nathan Thielman, 2015. "Would you test for 5000 Shillings? HIV risk and willingness to accept HIV testing in Tanzania," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. L. Mundaca & H. Moncreiff, 2021. "New Perspectives on Green Energy Defaults," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 357-383, September.
    8. Bonan, Jacopo & Cattaneo, Cristina & D’Adda, Giovanna & Tavoni, Massimo, 2019. "Can We Make Social Information Programs More Effective? The Role of Identity and Values," RFF Working Paper Series 19-21, Resources for the Future.
    9. Friedman, Willa & Wilson, Nicholas, 2022. "Can nudging overcome procrastinating on preventive health investments?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    10. World Bank Group, 2015. "Tanzania Mainland Poverty Assessment," World Bank Publications - Reports 22021, The World Bank Group.
    11. Ouvrard, Benjamin & Abildtrup, Jens & Stenger, Anne, 2020. "Nudging Acceptability for Wood Ash Recycling in Forests: A Choice Experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    12. Bonan, J. & Cattaneo, C. & d’Adda, G. & Galliera, A. & Tavoni, M., 2024. "Widening the scope: The direct and spillover effects of nudging water efficiency in the presence of other behavioral interventions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    13. Gosnell, Greer K., 2018. "Communicating Resourcefully: A Natural Field Experiment on Environmental Framing and Cognitive Dissonance in Going Paperless," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 128-144.
    14. Janusch, Nicholas & Palm-Forster, Leah H. & Messer, Kent D. & Ferraro, Paul J., "undated". "Behavioral Insights for Agri-Environmental Program and Policy Design," 2018 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 5-7, 2018, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 266299, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Ernesto Mesa-Vázquez & Juan F. Velasco-Muñoz & José A. Aznar-Sánchez & Belén López-Felices, 2021. "Three Decades of Behavioural Economics in Agriculture. An Overview of Global Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-21, September.
    16. Eszter Czibor & David Jimenez‐Gomez & John A. List, 2019. "The Dozen Things Experimental Economists Should Do (More of)," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(2), pages 371-432, October.
    17. Haoye Sun & Thorsten Teichert, 2024. "Scarcity in today´s consumer markets: scoping the research landscape by author keywords," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 93-120, February.
    18. List, John A. & Metcalfe, Robert D. & Price, Michael K. & Rundhammer, Florian, "undated". "Harnessing Policy Complementarities to Conserve Energy: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258139, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Brick, Kerri & De Martino, Samantha & Visser, Martine, 2023. "Behavioural nudges for water conservation in unequal settings: Experimental evidence from Cape Town," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    20. Saugato Datta & Mukta Joshi & Catherine MacLeod & Michele Davide Zini, 2022. "Leveraging Behavioral Science to Increase the Impact of Economic Inclusion Programming," World Bank Publications - Reports 37353, The World Bank Group.
    21. Tarun M. Khanna & Diana Danilenko & Qianyi Wang & Luke A. Smith & Bhumika T. V. & Aditya Narayan Rai & Jorge Sánchez Canales & Tim Repke & Max Callaghan & Mark Andor & Julian H. Elliott & Jan C. Minx, 2025. "Behavioral, Information, and Monetary Interventions to Reduce Energy Consumption in Households: A Living Systematic Review and Network Meta‐Analysis," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(4), December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:hhs:gunefd:2019_018. 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: Franklin Amuakwa-Mensah (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.efdinitiative.org/ .

    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.