Sociologist Jeni Cross in the Community: Cultivating Improved Retrofitting Habits
In a bid to combat climate change and achieve net-zero carbon goals by 2050, the focus on energy-efficiency retrofitting of existing buildings has never been more critical. However, as Dr. Jeni Cross, Professor of Sociology at Colorado State University and Director for the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRISS), points out, the path to widespread retrofitting is fraught with complex challenges at the intersection of human behaviour and built infrastructure.
Dr. Cross, who has dedicated 20 years to researching the relationship between human behaviour and the systems that surround us, argues that systems can either work with us, or not work at all. She contends that corporations have manipulated the system to limit choices for individuals, and infrastructure, including the built environment, can have a passive influence on behaviour.
One such example is the resistance to home energy retrofitting, a distributed action problem where the challenges lie in the collective decisions of disparate individuals. Dr. Cross notes that uptake for residential property retrofitting is slow due to chaotic organization, complexity, and the overwhelming number of choices presented to homeowners.
Moreover, institutions, including corporations, are resistant to change due to their rules and entrenched cultures. The larger an organization, the less flexible it is, making change difficult. This resistance to change, combined with the perceived difficulty and cost of retrofitting, has led to a focus on altering people's cognition instead of addressing the systemic issues.
Dr. Cross's research delves into the behavioural patterns that form where urban systems push on them, and how the built environment intimately shapes our behaviour. Separating rubbish for recycling is an example of how the physical world can hinder change, as small differences in placement of bins can significantly impact recycling rates.
To address these challenges, Dr. Cross co-developed the Theoretical Model of Constraint to demonstrate how the interaction of cognitive and cultural influences and physical and social structures can compress and limit the actions we take. She also created a course called Applied Social Change, which teaches how to implement change at different levels, and how the tools at each level are unique.
The City of Fort Collins worked with local contractors to establish a menu of energy efficiency options for homeowners, leading to a 44% increase in households taking action based on their energy efficiency assessment within a year. This example demonstrates the potential for effective collaboration between academia, government, and industry to overcome the barriers to energy-efficiency retrofitting.
Sara Edmonds, co-director of the National Retrofit Hub, highlights that although 80% of the buildings we will use in 2050 already exist today, retrofitting them is still "in the too difficult basket" despite its essential role in meeting climate targets. This suggests that overcoming entrenched behavioural and systemic barriers is one of the greatest challenges.
In conclusion, the key challenges at the intersection of human behaviour and built infrastructure in achieving widespread energy-efficiency retrofitting include behavioural resistance and lack of motivation to undertake retrofits, perceived complexity and disruption of retrofit projects, insufficient incentives and supportive policies, fragmentation of responsibility and ownership, and the need for holistic, integrated approaches that combine technical and social solutions. These challenges must be addressed comprehensively to accelerate energy efficiency retrofits essential for net-zero carbon goals by 2050.
- Dr. Cross's research emphasizes that the built infrastructure, including homes, can influence human behavior significantly.
- The choice to undergo home energy retrofitting is often hindered by chaotic organization, complexity, and the overabundance of options, leading to slow uptake.
- The entrenched cultures and rigid rules of institutions, such as corporations, make them resistant to change, which complicates the process of implementing energy-efficiency retrofits.
- The placement of recycling bins in the physical environment can impact recycling rates, highlighting how the built environment shapes behavior.
- Dr. Cross developed a Theoretical Model of Constraint to demonstrate how cognitive, cultural, physical, and social structures affect our actions.
- effective collaboration between academia, government, and industry, like the example in Fort Collins, can boost the number of households taking action on energy efficiency.
- Addressing the challenges in energy-efficiency retrofitting, such as behavioral resistance, perceived complexity, and lack of incentives, requires a holistic, integrated approach that incorporates both technical and social solutions.
- The essential role of retrofitting 80% of existing buildings in achieving net-zero carbon goals by 2050 is often overlooked due to the obstacles at the intersection of human behavior and built infrastructure.
