Reducing emissions through behavioural change - Scoping pilot programmes in Wales

Brook Lyndhurst worked with the Energy Saving Trust to provide advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on developing pilot interventions aimed at changing behaviour to improve domestic energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

The research was conducted in two phases:

Phase 1 – Identification of low carbon behaviours
The Welsh Assembly Government trialled a social marketing approach to the development of the pilot interventions. In line with the key characteristics of a social marketing campaign, the first phase of the research has been to identify which behaviours would result in the greatest carbon impact. The Energy Saving Trust led this phase which identifies possible impacts of behaviours both in terms of carbon impact and potential uptake in Wales to identify a shortlist of behaviours.

Phase 2 – Analysing interventions
This phase of the research was concerned with identifying locally-implemented interventions, initiatives and projects which aim particularly to encourage uptake of the shortlisted behaviours. Interventions could target the shortlisted behaviours directly or as part of a wider package of behaviours; may be operating at a range of scales; and by a variety of organisations.

The findings of these two phases of research resulted in the development of recommendations for the development of pilot interventions to be carried out in Wales.