CHARM, funded by the RCUK Digital Economy Programme, employs digital technologies as a means of providing individuals with feedback about their own and others’ sustainability behaviours. Thus, the three-year project examines the potential for telling people what other people do – the so-called ‘social norm’ approach – to change individual practices and behaviours in socially-desirable ways.
Following the CHARM approach, they are developing digital technology to facilitate the capture and web-based feedback of household energy consumption data. The study includes approximately 300 households in a UK city. Over 18 weeks, the research will compare the energy consumption of three groups of households: households that receive no feedback, households that receive feedback only about their own energy consumption, and households that receive feedback about their own energy consumption and that of the other households in the study.
Research data will include energy consumption data, base line and post intervention questionnaires, longitudinal ethnographic interviews and focus groups.
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