Reducing Carbon-Based Energy Consumption through Changes in Household Behavior

Bibliographic Data

ID9684642
AuthorsThomas Dietz (0000-0002-3041-3127, THOMAS DIETZ is Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, Sociology, and Animal Studies at Michigan State University, where he is also Assistant Vice President for Environmental Research. His publications include Human Footprints on the Global Environment: Threats to Sustainability (edited with Eugene A. Rosa, Andreas Diekmann, and Carlo C. Jaeger, 2010), Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making (edited with Paul C. Stern, 2008), and New Tools for Environmental), Paul C Stern (0000-0002-9481-3904, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), Elke U Weber (0000-0002-1678-3631, ELKE U. WEBER is the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business at Columbia Business School and Professor of Psychology and Earth Institute Professor at Columbia University, where she is also Codirector of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions. Her work has recently appeared in the journals Nature Climate Change, Nature Neuroscience, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Psychological Science, and American Psychologist, among others. She coedited Conflict and)
Year2013
Volume142
Issue1
Pages78-89
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDaedalus (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-5266 • E-ISSN: 1548-6192
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/daed_a_00186
OpenAlexW1985491539
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited11

Actions by individuals and households to reduce carbon-based energy consumption have the potential to change the picture of U.S. energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the near term. To tap this potential, however, energy policies and programs need to replace outmoded assumptions about what drives human behavior; they must integrate insights from the behavioral and social sciences with those from engineering and economics. This integrated approach has thus far only occasionally been implemented. This essay summarizes knowledge from the social sciences and from highly successful energy programs to show what the potential is and how it can be achieved

Behavioural sciences · Consumption (sociology · Economics · Energy (signal processing · Energy consumption · Environmental economics · Natural resource economics · Public economics · Social science · Sociology · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Engineering · Environmental Education and Sustainability

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access