This project focused on reducing environmental impacts from household food, energy, and water (FEW) consumption through behavior change and improvements in water and energy efficiency.  Our multidisciplinary team of social scientists, engineers, computer scientists, and climate scientists included more than 50 researchers from six universities and one federal agency in the U.S., as well as collaborators at universities in Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.  We also collaborated with industry, non-profit, and local government partners on education and technology transfer initiatives.

To study household FEW consumption, the team first interviewed 45 homeowners to learn about perceived opportunities for, and barriers to, conserving FEW resources.  Next, we conducted a national-level online survey with 1,200 respondents.  We also developed a computer role-playing game in which players make spending decisions related to FEW consumption.  Results from these activities informed the project’s next phase, in which we collected data on food purchases, energy use, water use, and consumption behavior from more than 150 suburban households over an 18-month period.  Participants used a web-based tool developed for this project that automatically tracked household electricity use and provided a convenient user interface for entering water, natural gas, and food purchase data.  A life cycle assessment model developed by the team then translated the consumption data into environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions and total (direct and indirect) energy and water use, which were reported to the participants.  (Indirect energy use, for example, includes energy used to produce food and deliver clean water.)  The web-based tool was also used to send messages to users about their consumption and suggest ways to reduce environmental impacts, as well as to conduct surveys on household demographics, home structural characteristics, and viewpoints and behaviors that may affect consumption levels.  Participants were also surveyed about topics such as food security, environmental awareness, political views, responses to projected climate impacts, and intended conservation practices following the study.

Study results provided new insights for evaluating FEW consumption behaviors and promoting sustainable practices.  For example, homeowner interviews revealed that consumption patterns and habits are closely connected to lifestyles and energy infrastructures, and thus consumption can be difficult to shift without greater awareness of those connections.  This was particularly true of higher-income households, which had greater per capita FEW consumption but were also more likely to make investments to improve energy efficiency.  In addition, surveys revealed that when people are aware of making sustainable energy choices, they are more likely to see themselves as environmentally conscious, which motivates them to act sustainably again in the future.  Throughout the study, the role of relationships in residential life was a recurring theme in participants’ responses, indicating the need to account for these social influences in promoting conservation practices.  This is an important finding for researchers who study consumption, as they tend to focus on individual values and behaviors, but this project suggests that dynamics with family members and others sharing residences can be more impactful than considerations at the individual level.  Regarding specific messages aimed at promoting conservation, a game experiment with university students showed that comparing players’ consumption levels was an effective strategy for reducing food and energy consumption in the game.  Also, players tended to take immediate actions corresponding to the message type (e.g., energy conservation actions immediately after energy-related messages).  Based on this, messages in the web-based platform all provided comparative information, but messages also varied based on whether the suggested solutions were aimed at individual or collective action. Finally, we sought to understand emotional responses to different types of messages.  For example, when shown messages about projected climate change impacts in their community (e.g., longer summers or more extremely hot days), respondents reported feeling emotions including surprise, worry, fear, anger, and guilt, and the strength of these emotions corresponded with age, education, political views, or incomes of the respondents.

The project provided professional development opportunities for more than 20 undergraduate students, over 20 graduate students, four postdoctoral scholars, and three early career faculty.  All graduate students and many of the undergraduate students collaborated with researchers in disciplines other than their own.  Early career faculty also collaborated across disciplines and with researchers at partnering universities.  Most of the students and early career researchers were women or from underrepresented groups, helping to broaden participation in scientific research.  The FEW role-playing game was used with more than 400 high school students, building interest in STEM careers.

Our findings can benefit consumers and inform policies related to environmental sustainability and household FEW security.  Software systems developed for the project, including the environmental impact model, software for translating climate model outputs to local scales, the household consumption tracker, and the role-playing game, will be useful in future education and research activities.  Our envisioned interdisciplinary approach could be adapted and applied to other studies of complex environmental issues.

Last Modified: 01/29/2024
Modified by: David W Watkins