Lessons from behaviour change programmes to reduce water demand Available to Purchase

A number of voluntary behaviour change programmes have been implemented in Australia to help people to help themselves reduce demand for water and other services such as transport, waste and energy. This is undertaken by encouraging people to think about their own needs and having facilitated conversations to help them identify ways they want to change their use and ways to implement those changes. This paper describes water saving – assessed quantitatively using meter reading data and control groups – where the goal was a 15% saving; the results have been conservatively assessed at 21%. This corresponds to a saving of 60 litres/person per day when typical usage in the area is 224 litres/person per day. The annualised savings during the project amounted to 264 million litres for the area and pledged actions predict 345 million litres. The paper draws conclusions from the implementation of these programmes and their effectiveness in achieving their intended benefits. While there are some differences in consumer behaviour between Australia and the UK, because approaches to implementation are always modified to suit different consumer groups and objectives, the principles of achieving demand reduction through behaviour change are considered to be universal.