Creating Sustainable Behaviour: An Exploration of Environmental Impacts of Household Cold Appliance

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Creating Sustainable Behaviour An Exploration of
Environmental Impacts of Household Cold Appliance
use 13th Sustainable Design Network Seminar
Design I Behaviour Making it Happen!
Loughborough University , 17th October 2008
Tang Tang and Dr.Tracy Bhamra Department
of Design and Technology Loughborough University

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Aim To investigate how designers can influence
consumer behaviour through product design to
decrease household energy use
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Product Selection
Fridge and/or Freezer
Use energy 24 hours a day 365 days a year
18 of domestic energy consumption (Energy Saving
Trust, 2006) 25 of the average household
bill (Ethical Consumer, 2001, cited in CAT,
2007) Households spend 1.2 billion on
electricity every year on cooling and freezing
food and drinks, which is equivalent to the
electricity consumed by all office buildings
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Product Selection
Literature review - Fridge and/or Freezer
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Test real use
Energy label
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To Gain Insight into
Real use of the fridge and/or freezer -
Actual and assumed needs actual behaviours
and habits problems and difficulties
Environmental impacts of use reasons for
unsustainable usage patterns The capacity of
product design to solve environmental problems of
fridge and/or freezer use
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Pilot Study 1,2-
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Problems of Observation
The activity observations should not be carried
out on the same day Time consuming - the
effective time of cooking observation was
limited Overt filming is the barrier for user
to behave naturally and realistically Do not
interview while filming Uncover a deeper
understanding of the links between the
environmental knowledge, belief and life values
and day-to-day behaviour
Problems of Questionnaire and Interview
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Research Methods
User profile Observation of the fridge and
freezer in use ? Unpacking Observation ? 24 hour
recording of users activities around the
product(s) In-depth Interview Questionnaire
Selection of Participants
Owner of fridge and freezer Do food shopping
and cooking regularly Live within easy
travelling distance of the researcher
18 British families were involved in this main
study
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Fridge opened times to prepare breakfast
and childrens lunch box - times within 24
min (F18-5p/Hh) etimes for a husband to make
his own breakfast (F11-4p/Hh) 1 times within
1 min, wife opened fridge 5 times totally for
their breakfast (F16-3p/Hh) Milk was taken out 4
times by 4 different family members during
breakfast time (F15-4p/Hh) twice in a 2 persons
household within 5 min (F03-2p/Hh) Son left door
open for 70 s making sandwiches (F04-4p/Hh) Wife
spent 68 s transferring foods between worktop and
fridge (F04-4p/Hh) 53s for daughter to search,
decide and discuss with her brother about what
need to be taken out (F15-5p/Hh)
Morning!
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The findings of the User Study - Morning Not
Organized during the breakfast preparation
Without thinking about all family members Not
planning in advance the more family members,
the more variety of food needed from fridge, the
more times of door opening Leave Door Open
while transferring items to worktop, Younger
Users behave in less sustainable way
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Changing Behaviour through Product Design
Most of the time spent putting food into the
fridge and freezer was used for making room for
new items and transferring items between shelves
Design-led solution
To improve the loading efficiency

• Adaptable interior to create the optimum
  arrangement
• Behaviour constraints lock the location of the
  food
• Design for the contents display

Operational principles of locating items
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Changing Behaviour through Product Design
The condition of use varied during the product
life - related to the householders shopping and
cooking habits and consumers life stage
Design-led solution
To avoid unnecessary replacement usage of a
second cold appliance
A flexible modular system with separate
temperature settings A modular service with
the customer to meet their needs during their
different life stages
Reasons for placing different amount of food
Reasons for purchasing new appliances
- Grocery shopping day - Parties, holidays and
hot weather - A healthier and lighter
lifestyle - Children
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Changing Behaviour through Product Design
During 24-hour recording, milk margarine were
identified as the most in-out items
Design-led solution
All were more organized on placing food inside
the fridge and/or freezer than cooking
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Guiding and Maintaining Changes through Product
Design
All young family members left the door open
while transferring items for quick food and lunch
box preparation
All set temperature at the first use none had
ever measured the real temperature on average,
fridges are operating at 5C higher than
recommended temperature
Design-led solution
Barriers to efficient energy consumption
- Invisible nature of energy - Unawareness of the
link - Lock in lifestyle - Lack of Information -
Lack of concern
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Changing Behaviour through System Design
Modern kitchens require a second, often empty
counter fridge and freezer to fit in
1/2 appliances in the study were built-in style
1/3 were located next to the oven
Design-led solution
limited storage space in the kitchen is another
reason for refrigerating some items that do not
need to be.
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Findings of User Study-design methods
The findings of the User Study Understanding
consumer behaviour can be the essential step for
seeking solutions to minimizing environmental
impacts of the household consumption through
improving product design The studies uncover
the different ways of using the product and its
unnecessary energy consumption, and identifies
the gap between environmental awareness and real
action and the reasons for such a gap a lack
of consumer awareness of the link between
behaviour and its impact use patterns of
energy-consumed product are habitual behaviour
performed automatically with little deliberation
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Findings of User Study-design methods
Observational Research Methods Survey The
cover story reduced the unnatural behavioural
response tendencies in observation
Ethnographical research methods reveal the
differences between their thoughts and own
actions unarticulated needs the
decision-making process represent the daily
practices provide very rich data of real
situation of the product use for designers
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Manufacturer (Designer)
PRODUCT
?
To answer how designers can influence user
behaviour strategically through sustainable
product design to decrease environmental impacts
of household energy consumption
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Thank you. 13th Sustainable Design Network
Seminar Design I Behaviour Making it Happen!
Department of Design and Technology Loughboro
ugh University