Written by Mariane Jang, Stephen Lorimer & Korinna Thielen.
Consumption Diaries was a lowtech experiment to determine the consumption behaviour of the ISS group and the factors that shaped this behaviour. The exercise was designed to allow participants to better understand their own consumption patterns with respect to key resources during their two-week stay in Wilhelmsburg. Participants recorded the amount, frequency and diversity of their own consumption on a day-today basis, and interim data were shared frequently with them. A list of recommendations for sustainable behaviour in the household was also provided.
Behaviour change can come about by putting things into context. The aim was to give students a feeling for what they consumed, especially for relatively invisible resources like electricity. The experiment aimed to stimulate discussion. We also wanted to find out if awareness and peer pressure modified behaviour over the course of the workshop.
For this paper, we aggregated the data from the diaries and looked at patterns of behaviour emerging across the group. We are sharing here some of the observations regarding the factors involved in activating behavioural change.
Structured diary methodology
At the two-week UdN Summer School students considered their own consumption and production activities by keeping a daily resource journal. Students were asked to note their resource use in energy, transportation, and food categories and to compare these levels to those of their typical lifestyle. In addition a real time meter helped make visible immediate energy uses. Both building energy consumption (fridge, water heater etc.) and the overall electrical consumption for working (computers, chargers etc.) were hidden and needed to be disaggregated.
Individual meters within the building collected this data, allowing detailed conclusions on the electricity consumed by individual appliances. A coach (Steve Lorimer) summarised several key observations about the building‘s energy consumption and of the group‘s energy consumption for work, and shared suggestions for behaviour modifications.
Often, sustainability measurement frameworks are designed to measure the ecological impact of corporate objectives and targets, and to identify managerial changes that can achieve more sustainable outcomes. With the daily journals, we aimed to scale this high-level management system down to the individual level, emphasizing real-time data gathering, analysing and reporting.
We wanted to understand what the UdN Summer School participants utilised in terms of resources, what they produced in terms of waste, if their consumption behaviours could change with awareness, and importantly, how this related to their feeling of overall wellbeing and happiness.
More than a precise record, the purpose of the journal was to give Summer School students an opportunity to reflect on their immediate relationships with the material world, and on associated issues raised by the consumption and production of goods and services in our modern economies.
The diaries were designed to reveal students‘ direct interactions with key resources. These data were then analysed in light of both quantitative and qualitative metrics. Participants were to make and record observations daily; the journal was designed to take no longer than five minutes. Some questions were designed to elicit quantitative data, such as “Could you have used less?” others to obtain qualitative data; in most instances we attempted to correlate the two. We also asked questions about personal wellbeing – “Was this a good day or a bad day”? – to trigger immediate reflections on the “value” of materials consumed.
Background to Sustainable Consumption and Production
The volume of goods and services produced and consumed bears fundamentally on the viability of a sustainable and fair future (UNDP, UNFCC). Most of what we currently consume ultimately draws down on and impacts our natural environment. Moreover, with global population projected to increase and consumption patterns in developing countries expected to follow those of developed countries, many scientists and experts argue that our resource use trajectory is significantly depleting resources and causing irrevocable damage to the planet. Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) refers to an approach that attempts to change the way in which our post-industrial generation eats, wears, disposes of, reuses and enjoys goods and services. It is a framework for reversing our resource-intensive, disposable lifestyles and making our economic, political, social and cultural lives have as little impact as possible on the world‘s/planet‘s natural resources. The focus of SCP is on producing and consuming differently from ‘business as usual’, e.g. buying replaceable parts, free-cycling goods, up-cycling materials, sharing goods and services (like cars), and ultimately finding mutually beneficial ways to minimize both resource use and the production of inferior, valueless waste. SCP encompasses more than behaviour change; it requires a paradigm shift.
Analysis
This section reports the students aggregated journal entries in graphical form. The graphs tell the story of the daily consumption of food, goods, electricity, water, transport and the concurrent production of waste, wastewater and emissions. Although the study was small and data incomplete, and the participants not representative of the general population in that attitudes were decidedly pro-environment, a number of interesting relationships became apparent, which are described alongside the graphs.
Water
How long was your shower?
How much less could you have showered?
This graph shows the average shower time in minutes of the summer school attendees (The number of daily respondents is fairly consistent, with exception of day 11). Average shower time varies between five and nine minutes. Students indicated that they could have used less time for their showers. Interestingly, this ideal shower time is relative to actual shower time. For example, a student who showered twenty minutes one day and three minutes on another, reported different ideal times for the two days, say eighteen minutes on the first and two minutes on the second, rather than two minutes for both situations.
An interesting energy peak occurs in the middle of the trial and the individual consumption surveys provide the reason: On August 20th, the day before the peak, many diary entries concerning ‘food and drink’ consumption correlated with a street festival in the Schanze district of Hamburg. The Schanzenfest is held annually in the summer in the Sternschanze district. The question: ‘What did you eat and drink outside UdN’ was widely answered with ‘take-away-food’ and ‘alcohol’ both is sold throughout the Schanzenfest in an informal fashion.
The day after the Schanzenfest was the day with the highest reported water consumption related to showering. Asked to reflect on their water use, students expressed that they could not limit their water consumption because of the impact of the previous night’s partying on their morning-after wellbeing. In response to the diary question whether participants could have used less water in the shower, the answers were „no, too tired“.
Waste
What did you throw away?
Of the things you threw away, what could have been reused, and for what?
The diverse items listed under ‘Waste’ were grouped into four categories: food (peelings scraps, meal left-overs), packaging and plastic bags, hygiene (paper towels, toilet paper, etc.), and beverage (i.e. bottles and cups). Waste is understood as material with no further use – the things that we decide are not worth keeping.
Participants were asked to imagine re-uses for material categorized as waste. Answers mostly concerned ‘coffee grounds’ (reusable as fertilizer) and bottles and containers (reusable as storage). The perceived volume of potential ‘storage space’ lost in take-away cups and containers according to students, could provide a design challenge for product designers.
The students were keen on implementing waste recycling for which there is no mechanism at UdN. However, after attempts at separating waste, it was discovered that the UdN lacks the municipalinfrastructure for recycling, so that the separated waste streams ended up together in one bin. Attempts at composting food waste failed due to the lack of a long-term caretaker.
Energy
What appliances did you use today at the Summer School?
How long did you plug in your laptop for?
What appliances did you use outside of the Summer School?
The graph shows how laptop use increased significantly as we approached the final presentation deadline, with students putting in long hours (and a white night) preparing – more than 8 hours average of plug-in-time. The use of the laptop is inversely proportional to observed social behaviour. The day of the Schanzenfest laptops were used for less than half an hour on average. Laptop use also directly correlates with interim deadlines, and inversely with fieldwork and assessments that occurred outside the house.
Mobility
How far did you travel outside of the Summer School?
What mode of travel did you use to travel outside of the Summer School?
This graph shows the overall travel distance during the days – with weekend excursions to both IBA sites, HafenCity and later the Schanzenfest very apparent. Students were asked to track their away and return trips via online mapping devices, but the data shows strong variation.
Although bikes were provided, many of the international students were not confident enough using them, so walking and public transport remained the dominant modes of transport.
Food
What did you eat and drink outside of mealtimes?
Where did you get this food and drink?
How much of this food and drink did you consume?
The fact that Western diets and consequent food waste are a considerable contribution to total anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases is well known (Kreutzberger, Thurn, 2011). While it is difficult to obtain accurate figures, we can roughly assume that 1 kg of food in an average shopping basket emits 1.9 – 3.6 kg of CO2 equivalents. 90 Million tons of food waste across the EU then amount to a 248 million tons of CO2: the combined total traffic emissions of France and the UK together.
During the Summer School, we tried to significantly reduce food waste by: buying prepared food in appropriate portions, eating all food delivered (as primary meals and as leftovers), cooking together, and inventing recipes for what was on hand.
The individual surveys asked students to report their eating habits outside of summer school. There was significant consumption off-premise in social places like cafes and restaurants, as well as take-away meals consumed during the weekend. The weekends stand out with increased consumption of alcohol and take-away food (a lot of Wurst and other meat products) in take-out or restaurant settings, as occurred during the Schanzenfest event. This is an interesting statistic that is relevant to larger climate change policy discussions regarding sustainable lifestyles and sustainable events. It is argued that “big” events involving great amounts of sociability disproportionately inflict environmental damage. The environmental impact of large-scale events that attract visitors is significant while they are at the event, and also when they return to their homes, hotels, and hostels afterwards.
The food at the Summer School was locally sourced wherever possible.
• Drink came from a local provider in Schanze, the (glass) bottles were picked up once a week by the provider and recycled.
• Jams were sourced from the Lotse community group, who work with a psychologically handicapped community in Wilhelmsburg.
• Day-old breakfast bread was purchased from a local bakery at half-price.
• Lunch (non-organic food) was delivered by a local kitchen. Left-overs turned into starters for dinner.
• Participants cooked dinner themselves with ingredients purchased from the Wilhelmsburger Tafel. The Wilhelmsburger Tafel receives food from supermarkets and food stores as a donation and passes it on to people on low incomes. The food is just beyond the expiration
date. Despite a high percentage of people in need in the district, there was enough food for the summer school. Our use of this resource did not deprive other residents in need.
About your day today
Is your typical day more or less resource-intensive than during this Summer School?
Was it a good or bad day?
One way of thinking and speaking about sustainable development is in terms of present and future quality of life. Sustainability then becomes a more meaningful concept, not limited to consumption and behaviour.
Instead it is about promoting wellbeing and quality of life in holistic ways. To introduce this thought, we asked students to note whether each day was a good day or a bad day.
All students responded that their typical day would on average be more resource-intensive than their days at the Summer School. Overall, a slight reduction of Well-being was observed from the beginning to the end of their stay. It is interesting to see that the general happiness is somewhat aligned with the intensity of work and the lack of sleep – either due to weekend-partying or work. It did not seem that the rather basic lifestyle at the Summer School impinged on their general level of happiness. But it should be noted in light of the previous discussion that the Summer School was an event in itself – a one-off occasion, breaking participants out of their routines, including those habits acquired to limit the environmental consequences of
our actions. The ‚happiness‘ data are therefore certainly not robust in value due to the one-off nature of the Summer School event.
Observations on aspects of behavioural change
At the Summer School, a real time electric meter was installed to help us put our energy use into daily perspective. We could directly observe the impact of our individual actions, such as using the electric kettle for a cup of tea – versus collective actions, such as turning on the space heating. The meters revealed the relationship we have with energy: pressing on the kettle-button produces direct effects (a sound first, the real time energy meter responds, and then we get our desired cup of tea). The heating system, on the other hand, is not so immediately responsive. Yet forgetting to turn the heater off at night is a much greater contribution to our overall energy consumption.
The experiment also helped us to see the cumulative effect of behaviours such as shower- taking. It was interesting to observe individual actions that were influenced by the actions of others, like the unconscious group decision to socialise with each other – rather than with friends far away via Facebook. The real-time monitoring provided by the centrally located smart meter, was an important (and fun) device to support participants‘ performance targets. What surprised everyone was the spike in energy use when the electric kettle was turned on. Students responded
by coordinating morning tea (essentially having it together).
We found the hypothesis underlying the design of the consumption diaries confirmed: awareness is the first step on the road to change. Increased awareness fostered by ongoing personal observation, daily reporting, measured feedback about the energy consequences of behaviour patterns contributed to decrease in consumption trends on all accounts over the two-week period.
The weekend of the 20th and 21st of August is therefore a remarkable exception for all variables. Here, consumption noticeably increased in transport, food, etc. with effects continuing even the next day: reported shower time was significantly longer than usual, and the extent to which it was felt this could have been reduced was much lower! While communal living at UdN allowed for a significantly lower ecological footprint, attendance at the yearly Schanzenfest, a social event involving great consumption of take-away food and drink, and increased production of waste, disproportionately increased our combined harm to the ecostructure of greater Hamburg.
The behavioural change researcher (Steve Lorimer) was there to foster behavioural change. We believe that this peer-to-peer communication was a very powerful factor in the reduction of overall consumption. We concluded that the success of the behaviour changes that reduced energy use relied strongly on team spirit and an inspiring moderator who is trusted by the group.
The experimental setting of the Summer School likely contributed to the students’ consumption patterns. By measuring their own consumption, participants became aware of the ‘household’ and developed a new sense of capacity and ownership. During this study we observed that the urban infrastructure of Wilhelmsburg and Hamburg and the social aspects and peer-to-peer communication of communal living played equally important roles defining participant resource consumption. The processes we introduced during the Summer School – such as picking up breakfast at the local bakery, cooking together and washing up, became a part of the identity of the place and a part of the collective value created between the group and the UdN. There are no supporting quantitative data, but qualitative observation suggests that (with exception of the excursion to the Schanzenfest) once an individual adopted environmentally friendly behaviour, he/she kept that resolve consistently, at least within the premises. Certainly, within the particular setting of the UdN – with highly visible meters everywhere– students were constantly reminded of their consumption. It may even be that sustainable consumption has become embedded in the identity of the place for them.
Conclusion
The consumption diaries were an attempt to identify some of the factors involved in activating behavioural change. Measuring, monitoring and thus tracking back and visualizing resource use is the first step in planning and improving the efficiency of resource use.
Authors
Mariane Jang holds an MSc in Culture and Society from the LSE and a BA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge. She worked over three years in sustainability consulting and research at Arup, where her projects included: project managing sustainable design guidance; reporting and assessment for the London 2012 Olympic Park; sustainability strategies for a range of built environment projects and urban policies. She is a qualified CEEQUAL assessor, an Associate member of the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA).
Stephen Lorimer: see next article.
Korinna Thielen: see final article.
References
OECD, Policy Case Studies Series: Policies to Promote Sustainable Consumption, 2002
S. Kreutzberger, V. Thurn (2011) Die Essensvernichter. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln. S 147.
Juster, T. & Stafford, F.P. (eds) (1985) Time, Goods and Well-being, Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
Collins, A., Flynn, A., Munday, M. & Roberts, A. 2007. Assessing the environmental consequences of major sporting events : the 2003/04 FA Cup Final. Urban Studies, 44, 457.