ABSTRACT

As energy codes become more stringent and building envelopes improve, it is the energy use under the direct control of the occupant that will have the greatest impact on the environment. With regard to the design of the physical environment, we recognize that an approach incorporating both building science and social science is necessary if progress is to be made toward Climate Change goals put forward by the 2015 Paris Agreement.

While social scientists have developed theoretical frameworks to understand people’s pro-environmental behaviors and relationships to place, many have overlooked the role of the built environment in that relationship. Conversely, architects focused on high-performance design often do not seek to understand how people make sense of their environments.

This study compares two communities (beyond code and code built) in the Pacific Northwest to understand people’s residential energy use behaviors and how that relates to their values, identity, and place attachment. Research methods include benchmarking actual energy consumption, a treatment (feedback) and a survey on perceptions of energy use, concluding with focused interviews.

Findings indicate that energy used for miscellaneous electric loads and appliances (behavior) was on par with space conditioning and domestic hot water (building) each near 50% of the total household energy. Interview and survey data suggests that people will engage in their environment in a way that is likely to be energy conserving when such behavior is supported by their residential setting, when they espouse biospheric values, and are attached to and identify with their homes and communities.

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