Changing Behavior in Buildings for Climate Change, with Dr. Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez
April 10, 2012
Buildings account for 42% of all U.S. GHG emissions. Reducing occupant energy consumption through behavior change can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. Behavioral changes have little to no cost and require no regulation to achieve. Recent studies show that simply giving office building occupants a web page where they can track their energy usage can lead to a 15% reduction in individual usage. Also, it has been shown that when given feedback, college students reduce their energy usage by between 12-40%.
The Climate, Buildings, and Behavior (CBB) Project, a component of the Climate, Mind and Behavior (CMB) program at the Garrison Institute in New York, helps real estate developers, managers and owners to utilize knowledge from the neuro, behavioral and social sciences to design effective energy consumption behavior change programs. Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, Ph.D discusses the work of the CMB with host Joanne Greene.
For more information on the CMB, visit:
http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/cmb-video
http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/cbb-video
http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/ccb-video
For more information about the Affordable Housing Podcast, please visit http://EdenHousing.org.