U-M PhD study focuses on local energy efficient habits

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

Some of the easiest sustainability gains can come from developing good habits in everyday life. At least that's the idea that's starting to emerge from a University of Michigan's PhD student's recent study.

Kim Wolske, a doctoral candidate at the university's School of Natural Resources & Environment, conducted a study last fall of a few dozen Ann Arbor households. The idea was to determine how much energy a household could save by establishing some simple habits, like turning down the thermostat.

Wolske sent out 3,000 letters to a random sample of Ann Arbor residents to see if they would be interested in reducing their carbon footprint during the month of October. Of those 195 households signed up and 85 completed the challenge.

Participants did everything from unplugging unnecessary electronics to excluding meat from at least one meal a week. They could log onto a website and see how much energy their actions saved. The goal was to reduce their carbon footprint by 2 percent.

"In general households saved 6 percent of their energy consumption," says Wolske, who is still analyzing the data. She expects to release the study by the end of the year.

"I didn't expect people to be too willing to give up meat or be willing to change their diet as much as they did," Wolske says. "It was a heart-warming experience to see how many households were willing to give it a shot."

She has been working with city of Ann Arbor's Energy Dept., which plans to use the statistics to help it meet its Energy Challenge goal.

"This could be really valuable information for us to create behavioral changes," says Andrew Brix, energy programs manager for the city of Ann Arbor.

Source: Kim Wolske, a doctoral candidate at the university's School of Natural Resources & Environment and Andrew Brix, energy programs manager for the city of Ann Arbor
Writer: Jon Zemke