Occupant-centred temperature reduction in an energy efficient site

In this study we focus on the energy saving potential and the user acceptance of indoor air temperature reduction in an energy efficient district, consisting of seven residential buildings.The two major findings in this paper constitute a field of unresolved tension. From a technical point of view, temperature reductions of 1.5 K,to approximately 21.5 °C, allow to save some 25%of the total heating energy. The human dimension, however, suggests that a reduction of indoorair temperatureis associated with only limited acceptance. In future work we will set out to explore how acceptance ratings might evolveover longer timespans

Consumers’ knowledge gain through a cross-category environmental label

Consumers' food choices play a crucial role in the shift toward increased sustainability. However, consumers' knowledge about daily food items is not sufficient to evoke environmentally friendly food choices. To facilitate a shift towards more sustainable food consumption, providing understandable information about the environmental impact of products in an easily accessible and effective way seems to be promising. With this outcome in view, we created a new label and tested its effectiveness in improving people's accuracy in evaluating the environmental friendliness of food products. The proposed label is based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and designed to compare food items across food categories through a color-coded scheme. In an online choice task, participants were asked to choose the more environmentally friendly product of two options. Depending on the condition, the products were either labeled or not. As expected, the number of correct choices was significantly higher when the products were labeled (vs. not). Moreover, participants had a positive attitude toward the cross-category label; they evaluated it as comprehensible, credible and useful. The majority of participants indicated that they would be willing to include the label in their shopping decisions, if it were introduced to the market. Altogether, the present research provides evidence that a color-coded sustainability label is suitable for informing consumers about the environmental impact of food products and helps them identify environmentally friendly products

Integration im Quartier durch Nachhaltigkeitsprojekte (IQN)

Das Quartier ist ein wichtiger Ort der Integration und auch ein Ort, wo sich nachhaltige Entwicklung ganz konkret fördern lässt. Das Ziel des Projektes ist es demnach, Faktoren für die die Förderung der sozialen Integration in Quartieren/Siedlungen, hier verstanden als Zusammenleben unterschiedlicher Bevölkerungsgruppen bzw. der Bewohnenden insgesamt, heraus zu arbeiten. Dabei wird ein besonderes Augenmerk auf die Verbindung zur nachhaltigen Quartierentwicklung allgemein und der Rolle der digitalen Medien gelegt. In drei Fallstudien – FOGO-Areal, Hunziker Areal und Neuhegi – werden mittels Befragungen, Interviews und Workshops mit unterschiedlichen Stakeholdern (Bewohneden, Projektverantwortlichen, Immobilienverwaltungen, Genossenschaften städtische Verwaltung) untersucht welche lokalen Projekte einen Beitrag zu Partizipation im Quartier leisten und wie dies gelingt. Daraus werden begünstigende Faktoren und Hindernisse herausgearbeitet und den Stellenwert von Nachhaltigkeitsthemen sowie der digitalen Kommunikationsmittel für die Vernetzung im Quartier untersucht. Aus den Untersuchungen in den Fallstudien und einem Synthese-Workshop mit der Begleitgruppe des Projektes wurden folgende Handlungsempfehlungen für Genossenschaften/Immobilienverwalter/städtische Verwaltungen entwickelt. Es sollten unterschiedliche und auch niederschwellige Möglichkeiten für Partizipation angeboten werden, ohne dabei Mitwirkung zu erzwingen. Die Ergebnisoffenheit der Partizipationsprozesse ist zu gewährleisten und der Handlungsspielraum muss den Bewohnenden klar kommuniziert werden. Innerhalb eines Projektes können oft verschiedene Nachhaltigkeitsziele kombiniert werden und so auch Personen mit unterschiedlichen Motivationen angesprochen werden. Bei den digitalen Kommunikationsmitteln gibt es eine starke Pfadabhängigkeit, das heisst, wenn man sich einmal für eine Plattform/ein Tool entschieden hat, ist es schwierig ein neues zu etablieren. Damit digitale Community Plattformen als Partizipationsinstrument wirken können, bedarf es einer aktiven Bewirtschaftung der Plattform

Public opinion about solar radiation management: A cross-cultural study in 20 countries around the world

Some argue that complementing climate change mitigation measures with solar radiation management (SRM) might prove a last resort to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. To make a socially responsible decision on whether to use SRM, it is important to consider also public opinion, across the globe and particularly in the Global South, which would face the greatest risks from both global warming and SRM. However, most research on public opinion about SRM stems from the Global North. We report findings from the first large-scale, cross-cultural study on the public opinion about SRM among the general public (N = 2,248) and students (N = 4,583) in 20 countries covering all inhabited continents, including five countries from the Global South and five ‘non-WEIRD’ (i.e. not Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic) countries from the Global North. As public awareness of SRM is usually low, we provided participants with information on SRM, including key arguments in favour of and against SRM that appear in the scientific debate. On average, acceptability of SRM was significantly higher in the Global South than in the ‘non-WEIRD’ Global North, while acceptability in the ‘WEIRD’ Global North was in between. However, we found substantial variation within these clusters, especially in the ‘non-WEIRD’ Global North, suggesting that countries do not form homogenous clusters and should thus be considered individually. Moreover, the average participants’ views, while generally neither strong nor polarised, differed from some expert views in important ways, including that participants perceived SRM as only slightly effective in limiting global warming. Still, our data suggests overall a conditional, reluctant acceptance. That is, while on average, people think SRM would have mostly negative consequences, they may still be willing to tolerate it as a potential last resort to fight global warming, particularly if they think SRM has only minor negative (or even positive) impacts on humans and nature

Consumer segmentation based on Stated environmentally-friendly behavior in the food domain

Food consumption has a large environmental impact, but the total impact of households can be reduced substantially by changing consumers’ food-related decisions and behaviors. Consumers differ in their motives and willingness to behave in an environmentally-friendly manner with regard to food consumption. Therefore, it is important to identify different types of consumers in order to develop and implement tailored intervention strategies. To identify and describe the different types of food consumers based on detailed behavioral patterns, we distributed a paper-pencil questionnaire and used data of 817 Swiss households. Applying a comprehensive and differentiated approach, self-reported environmentally-friendly food behavior was assessed with regard to different domains and different types of behaviors, which subsequently served as the basis for the consumer segmentation. We also assessed behavior in the mobility and household domains as well as several personality variables and sociodemographics as descriptive measures to characterize the segments on a differentiated basis. Cluster analysis revealed six segments in regard to environmentally-friendly food consumption: meat- and fish-eaters, origin-focused food savers, ambiguous consumers, food waste reducing sharers, renouncement aversives and consequent pro-environmental consumers. After a detailed description and discussion of the six consumer segments, we propose starting points for the development of segment-specific intervention and communication strategies to promote environmentally-friendly food consumption

Decision-Making Strategies for the Choice of Energy-friendly Products

ISSN:0168-7034ISSN:1573-070

The stereotypes attributed to hosts when they offer an environmentally-friendly vegetarian versus a meat menu

Food consumption has a large environmental impact, which could be substantially reduced by decreasing meat consumption. Obstacles to this reduction are the stereotypes connected to a vegetarian diet. The aim of this study was to identify how persons are evaluated with regard to certain characteristics based on the meals they offer friends for a dinner. In an online-experiment with 223 participants, the influence of a menu’s meat component (meat vs. vegetarian menu) and price (low vs. high) on 10 personality attributes ascribed to hosts was investigated. Results show that persons who offer a vegetarian menu are assessed as significantly (p < .005) more trend conscious, alternative, health conscious, and more concerned about animal welfare. For menus of a higher price category, the hosts are seen as stingier. Persons serving a vegetarian menu are perceived as worse hosts only if they offer an inexpensive menu. To reduce meat consumption in social and individual contexts, a positive communication strategy focusing on the positive characteristics and on the role model value of persons who offer vegetarian meals is recommended

Tampering with nature : a systematic review

Tampering with nature has been shown to be a strong, and sometimes even the strongest, predictor of the risk perception and acceptance of various technologies and behaviors, including environmental technologies, such as geoengineering. It is therefore helpful to understand what tampering with nature is as a construct, to which factors it relates, and when a technology or behavior is perceived as such. By means of a systematic review, we show that very little systematic research has been conducted on tampering with nature. Because tampering with nature has not yet been clearly defined, no systematic operationalization of tampering with nature has been used in the current literature. We show that tampering with nature is often used interchangeably with other constructs, such as naturalness. Based on the literature, we suggest that tampering with nature is related to and possibly influenced by three other constructs, which are naturalness, morality, and controllability. We discuss the influence of tampering with nature on the acceptance and risk perception of various technologies and behaviors and make suggestions for future research needs in order to better understand this construct

Promotion of environmental and social sustainability through a digital community platform in the context of the Corona pandemic

Digitalization offers new opportunities for the transition towards more sustainable and inclusive societies. Digital platforms, for example, provide a supportive and facilitating environment for social interaction and exchange, especially in situations requiring reduced physical proximity such as the Corona pandemic. In order to promote social exchange and the use of local services and activities, we developed and implemented a digital community platform at district level in collaboration with the City of Winterthur. The platform is aimed at promoting social interaction, place attachment and identity, sharing behavior, a decrease in mobility need, and ultimately satisfaction with life. At the point in time of the launch of the digital platform, in November 2019, and about one year after the implementation, in January 2021, a survey was conducted amongst residents to test for the effect of the platform. After one year, residents using the digital community platform had a higher place attachment and identity, and their leisure activities took more often place on a local level compared to non-subscribers. Furthermore, platform users intensified their communication with people from the district via digital platforms and engaged in more interactions across generations and cultures. However, sharing behavior did not change. The satisfaction with life in the district decreased for non-subscribers – possibly due to the Corona pandemic that coincides with this period – but there was no decline in the level of satisfaction of community platform users. Results suggest that a digital community platform can support social exchange, but this does not always translate into analog life