Introduction
This report discusses a designed behavior change program aimed at promoting energy saving quest at Mr. Faud’s household. Programs that promote behavioral changes are important in various contexts. Concurrently, environmental sustainability involves making appropriate decisions when executing activities that safeguard the natural biosphere for future generations.
It has become a very significant issue as individuals are recognizing the full effect that businesses and people could have on the environment. Environmental sustainability requires some behavior change focused on conserving the environment. However, change for sustainability is not only the obligation of corporations and individuals but also the state and federal governments.
Some policy instruments are necessary to overcome barriers to behavioral change. These include economic instruments, regulations, education/training, and information provisions (Ginley & Kahen, 2012). Others comprise community participation and institutional change.
Background Information
Energy is the major focus of most significant economic, environmental and developmental concerns within the modern society. Clean, cheap and dependable energy services are indispensable for the worldwide affluence. Emerging nations, specifically, should expand their access to reliable and present energy services if they need to lessen poverty and advance the health of their people.
Concurrently, they need to upsurge productivity, improve competitiveness and promote the overall global economic growth. The current energy sources are not enough to serve the requirements of underprivileged citizens. Consequently, threatens the realization of the MDGs. For example, if there is an inadequate supply of reliable energy services, institutions such as hospitals and schools can never operate smoothly.
Access to hygienic water and cleanliness is inhibited without effectual pumping capacity. Food security is badly affected, in most cases, with the overwhelming influence on susceptible populations. The first step in realizing sustainability, not only in buildings but also in organizations, involves building energy efficiency.
This is very useful in curtailing rising costs of energy, reducing environmental trails, and improves the value and attractiveness of buildings (Sioshansi, 2011). Identifying the most effectual solutions towards realizing sustainability in houses involves creating energy saving solutions that will guarantee getting the most out of each and every single energy unit in the house.
Also, it encompasses utilization of resources that is available within the house to full effect so as to decrease the environmental footprint and the operating costs. High household energy consumption can be very expensive in the long run. For instance, in this program, the cost per kilowatt hour of energy is $0.2643. Before the adoption of the program, the total cost of energy consumption was $65.62.
After the adoption of the program the total cost reduced to $43.74. This indicates a 21.88 per cent reduction on the cost. The excessive cost, if accrued over some time, could prove too costly for Mr. Faud. This is a vital provision in the context of program development and energy saving quests. It can also involve radical measures like completely transforming the lifestyle of an individual.
In most cases, behavior change takes substantial event that makes people contemplate on what they do, think and sense about a matter or prevailing behavior. In general, change can take place in different ways, some great, some petite; some take longer while others take place faster.
These could be designated as incremental and transformational change. This report indicates a developed behavior change program aimed to reduce Electricity Bill for Mr. Faud, with a family of 8 people, by 21.88 per cent. This is a vital provision in the context of energy preservation and sustainable development.
Behavior Change Program
After conducting a survey with Mr. Faud, who is the major stakeholder in this program and conducting research on the effective ways of reducing energy consumption, the following tips were identified to be very essential. Consequently these were the behavior changes that were desired for this program (Ginley & Kahen, 2012).
For an individual to thrive in saving reasonable quantities of renewable energy, critical alternatives need observation. Individuals and energy users must establish, fix, and embrace the use of energy saving gadgets to guarantee that enough energy is under conservation for future utilization. Concurrently, it is critical to enlighten people on energy saving tips and their significance.
This will restructure the perception of the society regarding the matter for a viable behavior change. Through apposite edification, the conducts of people/community in regard to energy use will undeniably transform. Thirdly, domestic equipments should be changed/adjusted. This is a vital provision when considered critically in the context of energy preservation and promotion of significant energy provision.
This move will guarantee reliability, sufficiency, and continuity of energy supply. These provisions will ensure that various households (including Mr. Faud’s) save energy. Generally, change is defined as the process of transformation from one status to another. The process can be aggressively pursued to achieve the desired objectives.
Also, it could be perceived as a process in which people are inactive players, and the transition could be pursued or resisted. Behavior change can occur in various ways including recycling waste papers at home or taking public transport instead of driving one’s own car to the workplace.
Lighting behavior change
Turning lights off when leaving the room is critical in saving energy at home. This helps in conserving electricity consumption when it is not being utilized by any individual. Incandescent globes in the house should be substituted with compact fluorescent lights whose power rating is lower to reduce electricity consumption. Light fittings, reflectors and lamp shades should also be kept clean to ensure maximum lighting.
In addition, dimmers can be used to decrease the consumption of electricity. Finally, natural light can be used whenever possible to conserve electricity (Ginley & Kahen, 2012). It is important to understand the provisions of this quest in order to make viable energy saving programs.
The Kitchen behavior change
Oven consumes much electricity; therefore, microwave or a frying pan can be used to minimize electricity usage at home. Dishwasher should only be run when it is full, since otherwise results into putting into more use, which could lead to more energy consumption.
For more energy conservation, lids should be put on saucepans for more rapid cooking. Besides, using the right-sized saucepan is recommended on the appropriate sized element or burner. Checking fridge seals and temperature regularly is important to conserve energy.
Heating and cooling behavior change
Reportedly, heating systems should be set to not more than 20oC, and cooling to no less than 26oC, when using them. Heaters and conditioners should be serviced regularly to ensure efficiency and reduce consumption of energy in the long run. Heating and cooling systems in the rooms should also be switched off every time they are not being used to avoid wasting of energy. Cold air inflow can be prevented by sealing all the gaps around windows and doors as well as using door snakes.
Additional blankets or jumpers rather than electric blankets or heating can be used to avoid consuming energy. Various steps involved in realizing sustainability, involves building energy efficiency. This is very useful in curtailing rising costs of energy, reducing environmental trails, and improves the value and attractiveness of buildings as indicated before.
Washing Behavior Change
Clothes should be washed using cold water instead of heated water. An appropriate water level should be used for the right amount of washing to avoid heating extra water which would otherwise be wasted. Furthermore, the washing machine should be set to the water/energy saving mode. Rather than using electric cloth driers, clothesline can be used to save on the electricity units that could have been used in drying cloths.
This is a vital provision when considered critically in the context of energy preservation and promotion of significant energy provision. In this context, energy is the major focus of most significant economic, environmental and developmental concerns within the modern society.
Implementation of Behavior Change Program
Individuals and groups who can perceive the necessity for change are referred to as change agents in most cases. Such individuals or groups proactively work to encourage an effect and are significant in creating the critical mass needed in more difficult situations.
According to Buckingham & Theobald (2003), A change agent is described as a person or group who has a different perception and interactive knowledge and taking pert as catalyst is assisting the institution or even society approach old complications in new or more inventive ways. These agents have a significant role in effecting behavior change for sustainability.
However, there is no a perfect change agent and there are skills that could have a great influence on the achievement or failure of a behavior change project. In addition, change agents have to understand how various individuals are affected by the program and respond to change along with being very well organized so as to respond instead of reacting to that specific behavior.
In this program change agents are employed to monitor the program as well as respond to issues affecting different parties involved. To effectively execute this obligation, these change agents need to have effective communication skills. This is vital for assisting individuals through the change process. This implies knowing how to connect with different groups of people to help them through behavioral change.
Effective communication is comprised of several factors. Specifically, it involves representing honest compassion towards the project, being straightforward and clear in the demonstrating the intentions of communication, and listening actively to people, which involves really hearing and understanding the viewpoint of an individual. Furthermore, communication should be in a language that is understandable to most people and spoken out clearly and concisely.
Finally, it is essential to comprehend and be able to communicate effectively on the need for change since most people would want to know the main idea behind change (Lye, 2010). As indicated before, this is a vital provision when considered critically in the context of energy preservation and promotion of significant energy provision.
It is recommendable for the society to learn energy saving skills. Through this, it will gain novel ideologies concerning the matter. Concurrently, Mr. Faud’s household must embrace the use of renewable energy as part of the program. This is a critical provision when considered decisively in diverse contexts.
Several households will become conscious of this by establishing solitary renewable energy systems that hardly emit bountiful CO2 besides energy consumption. The other recommendation is that households must identify the causes of the problems being faced when trying to be sufficient in energy production. By investigating the root cause of the problem, it will be possible to find some viable solutions to the proposed energy saving program.
The move will obviously help the concerned household to save energy. The short-term & long-term action plans for the program integrate learning from the past faults, and eventually making practicable changes. By doing this, the society will be able to save a larger amount of energy in relation to its current consumption levels. Besides, the society will gratify the proposed program due to its. In this regard, the society will realize improved energy levels and reduced electricity bills.
The Four Room Apartment Model of Change
In the proposed program, Mr. Faud could be subjected to the Four Room Apartment Model of Change i.e. contentment, denial, confusion, and renewal. In order to enact the proposed the energy saving program to success, it was important to overcome the challenges associated with change ratification (Dezieck, 2012). Firstly, Mr. Faud was in the “Contentment” apartment.
For instance, he was just contented with his status quo and his energy consumption trends. He had no need for change. His energy was focused on maintaining a viable working system. Nonetheless, upon the introduction of the proposed program, he went to the “Denial” apartment. He defied the proposed change while keeping other priorities in mind and keeping less-demanding issues from intrusion (Dezieck, 2012).
Mr. Faud was focused on other things apart from embracing the new program. In fact, he could respond with anecdotal degrees of anger, evasion, and aggravation. However, he later acknowledged the need, feelings, and pieces of advice regarding the proposed change.
This took him to the “Confusion” apartment where he could not discard the old ways. The new program was unclear to him. With time and after enacting the proposed program fully, Mr. Faud stepped into the “Renewal” apartment where he realized the possibility of enacting and embracing the new energy saving programs to the fullest.
References
Buckingham, S. & Theobald, K. (2003). Local environmental sustainability. Cambridge: Woodhead.
Dezieck, J. (2012). The Four Room Apartment Model of Change for Understanding and Choosing Action Strategies. Web.
Ginley, S, & Kahen, D. (2012). Fundamentals of materials for energy and environmental sustainability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lye, H. (2010). Sustainability matters: Environmental management in Asia. Singapore: World Scientific.
Sioshansi, P. (2011). Energy, sustainability, and the environment: Technology, incentives, behavior. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.