Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Encouraging Collective Action Bradford University Rachel Macrorie & Liz Sharp The governance of domestic water & energy systems

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Presentation content Local demand management policy perspectives Resource users’ understandings & experiences How can we explain differing perspectives? A complementary approach

Case Study Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Domestic water & energy retrofit: Advice, easy & harder measures Trial in Kennington & Bybrook Roll-out across Ashford Borough to be funded by Ashford Carbon Fund 25% CO 2 reduction & 10% water reduction in 60% properties & 60% CO 2 reduction in 5% properties

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Research approach

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives ‘ Responsibility for delivering water efficiency is highly fragmented and ultimately depends upon the individual...user’ (AIWMS, 4-6) Local policy perspectives GovernanceConstruction of the resource user Regulatory approach Passive – delegates decisions CitizenRight to resource Sharp, 2006 Economic approach ActiveIndividual consumer Commodity

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Local policy perspectives Facilitate user engagement: ‘...by making it simple and easy to do the right thing...[we need to give] people the means to [use resources wisely] without impacting dramatically on their lifestyles’ Behaviour change vs. technical/structural fix: ‘It’s the behaviour of the people that’s most important....if you improve the building, but provide absolutely no awareness to the benefits of that, they can be as wasteful...as if they were in a really leaky house with lots of gaps between all the doors and windows’ Commercial governance: ‘the role for the public sector is..packaging up the various private sector offers... in a systematic, community by community [way]’

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives ‘Savings at Home’ retrofit More than 2,000 gadgets and advice, worth around £300 in total were given to participating residents to help save water, energy and money (AF press release)

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Resource users’ perspectives Collective challenge: ‘The costs are part of it but environmentally, the fact that it’s going to run out...we’ve really got to do our bit to save what we can’ Information & encouragement: ‘This is what we should be doing more of, actually giving people information, encouraging them, reducing our resource use’ Technical focus: ‘The visit was mainly around the technical measures...we didn’t get onto any broader issues’ Goal-orientated behaviour: ‘I’m not trying to get down to a particular unit of electricity usage per week’

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives A B C Attitudes Behaviours Choices Explaining the differences Shove 2010 Consumers ‘locked in’ to unsustainable resource-using practices by a complex set of interlinked factors

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Resource Efficiency Alternatives GovernanceConstruction of the resource user Community approach: (engagement & contestation) ActiveCitizenRight to communal resources Reliance on changing practices Indirect sustainability benefits

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Towards sustainable consumption  Encourage public debate about resource use practices  Emphasise collective action as well as goal-orientated behaviour  Shift understanding of our roles and responsibilities: active user engagement & partnership working  Acknowledge different perspectives so society can renegotiate our demands on water & energy systems

Ashford’s Integrated Alternatives Encouraging Collective Action The governance of domestic water & energy systems Thank you Any comments or questions?