The Distribution and Dynamics of UK Citizens' Environmental Attitudes, Behaviours and Actions

This project will use the detailed data on individual and household characteristics, environmental and other types of behaviours in the new 90,000 strong 'Understanding Society' household panel (UKHLS) and the preceding linked BHPS to analyse the dynamic relationships between environmental attitudes, behaviours, and actions of people living in the UK. Since energy overuse at the national level results both directly and indirectly from the aggregation of millions of individual household decisions, we need to understand not only how attitudes towards pro-environmental behaviours and energy-using habits (practices) are distributed across the population but also the ways in which the two are causally related and the processes that drive their change over time.
To do this we will organise our substantive work programme around six related themes:
Theme 1: Measurement and Indices
This theme will develop a set of open and transparent multidimensional indicators of environmental attitudes and behaviours across domains to identify both common and unique predictors and to derive a set of indices that can be re-used in the analysis of other datasets which carry similar question modules.
Theme 2: Distributions & Clusters
This theme will analyse the changing distributions of UK citizens' environmental attitudes, habits and actions using the indicators developed in Theme 1. We will use the longitudinal nature of the data to identify the circumstances, socio-economic or psychological factors that constrain or prevent subsequent change. This will include an analysis of the role of levels of income; household structure (e.g. presence of young children); and types of environments (e.g. accommodation; rurality; and local deprivation, pollution and energy consumption). Further the theme will analyse the extent to which environmental attitudes correlate with the level of energy use in the household and will identify the factors that are associated with the smallest or largest discrepancies.
Theme 3: Intra-household Relationships & Dynamics
This theme will use the longitudinal and whole-household nature of the data to examine the similarities between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours of members of the household and their dynamics over time. We will analyse the extent to which different household members (both adults and children) influence each other and seek to identify key internal and external drivers on the overall environmental behaviour/impact of the household.
Theme 4: Intervention & Transition Effects
This theme will extend Theme 2 to include the effects of household 'actions' and transitions. It will analyse the impact of the installation of self-production of energy or home efficiency measures on energy consumption/costs and the extent to which pro-environmental behaviour is shaped by events such as the birth of a child, changes in the economic conditions of the household, or changes to the accommodation.
Theme 5: Regulatory & Media Effects
This theme will use the unique rolling sample design of the UKHLS to analyse whether people are more likely/less to report pro-environmental behaviour and attitudes in periods when environmental problems are more present in the media or when there is uncertainty of the implementation of government policies in this context. This work will extend to the comparison of effects for young people aged 10-16 vs adults using the unique youth UKHLS survey.
Theme 6: Data Linkage
Finally we will study the feasibility of linking the UKHLS to DECC's National Energy Efficiency Data Framework (NEED) to add observed energy use, production and 'green' improvement data (NEED) to detailed socio-demographic, behavioural and attitudinal data (UKHLS).
In addition we will run an actively managed dissemination and user engagement activity, including a final policy results workshop, to ensure maximum exploitation of results in ongoing academic work, policy debates and intervention strategies.

Non-academic beneficiaries of this research will include a wide range of organisations and individuals, operating at several levels:

- Government researchers and policy makers. Findings about the drivers of, and barriers to, pro-environmental behaviour will be of central relevance to a number of policy areas, notably the carbon-reduction and energy demand objectives of DECC, but also key policy areas for DEFRA and DfT. Findings will also be of relevance to policies across several other UK government departments, including DCMS, MoJ, Home Office, DCSF, BIS, DH, DWP and DfE. At an operational level a number of agencies and committees involved in shaping government consumers will be direct consumers of the findings, including BERR and the Environmental Audit Committee. EU policy-makers should also find the findings relevant and helpful as may the policy community in other countries, in so far as it can be assumed that the findings are transferable beyond UK boundaries.
- Carbon reduction agencies. Organisations tasked with reducing carbon emissions and/or managing energy demand will be able to use some of the findings to target their own strategies. These include the Energy Saving Trust, the Carbon Trust, Housing Energy Adviser, and WRAP.
- Local government officers and councillors. County, borough and unitary authorities in the UK are responsible for services relevant to the subject of this research, notably recycling, and have influence over several others, including the provision of local transport and walking and cycling infrastructure, through local planning frameworks, transport plans, and planning decisions. Many also have a carbon strategy and aim to influence public environment-related behaviour.
- NGOs, think tanks, charities. Campaigning research organisations such as the New Economics Foundation, IPPR, the Green Economics Institute and Demos (an many others too numerous to list) are likely to find the project findings informative for their own work.
- Political parties. The relevance of the research to policy at all levels (European, UK, local authority) means that interest can be expected from parties developing their own policies and manifestos.
- Energy companies. Drivers of energy use by consumers is at the heart of much of the research, which should therefore be useful to energy companies as they develop their own pricing and demand management policies and consumer behaviour campaigns.
- Retail businesses. Findings on factors affecting the purchase of recycled products should be of interest to businesses selling such products as well as the product manufacturers. The findings could have implications for advertising, production and location strategies.
- General public. Many members of the general public will have an interest in the findings, which will help them to locate their own attitudes and behaviours within the population distribution.
- Society as a whole. Ultimately, if the research positively influences policy in any of the areas mentioned above, society as a whole should benefit through improved quality of life. This could occur via several channels, such as delayed impact of climate change, reduction in environmental degradation, reduction in (energy-related) inequality, improved energy security, reduced fuel bills and improved transportation options.

The direct impacts on many of these beneficiaries could be rapid. Notably, campaigning organisations and those tasked with stimulating behaviour change are able to adapt their messaging and their strategies quickly, once convinced of the likely efficacy of doing so. Impacts on policy debates could similarly be rapid, though impacts on policy itself will take longer to filter through the review and revision process. The indirect impacts on society as a whole (via the effect of policies and practices influenced by the research) will accrue only in the long-term, perhaps after decades and even then difficult to detect and to ascribe causation.