Projects

Completed

Applied Research and Development

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Geography and Environmental Studies)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour)

Project Contact
Scott Wilson Consultancy

Standard

DEFRA

01 January 2007

31 December 2007

12 months

£77,100

Transport

London

DEFRA Sustainable production and Consumption - EBC - EV02

Project Contact, Scott Wilson Consultancy

Objectives not supplied

Defra is commissioning research into ‘public understanding of sustainable transport’ in order to contribute to the developing evidence base on sustainable consumption and production and the pursuit of policies which contribute to one planet living. The overarching requirement is to provide evidence about how far the public appreciates that its transport and travel choices influence climate change; to identify the level of current awareness about the range of behaviours available toindividuals to reduce their personal transport-related carbon emissions; and the acceptability of these alternative behavioural choices to the public. Other objectives include identifying any misconceptions and confusions in the way the public conceptualises the transport and climate change links, and to identify who they would most readily turn to for information about making effective climate-beneficial consumer choices. As the requirements involve uncovering detailed information about thecomplexity of the attitudes people hold, and the possibility to explore with people various scenarios which could enable them to reduce their transport-related ‘carbon footprints’, the research will take a qualitative approach, using discussion formats with different numbers of participants (some groups of around 35 people, some with around 5, and also some individual interviews). In total around 100 participants will be drawn from locations across the UK in sucha way as to reflectthe make-up of British society. The research will use innovative methods, notably ‘mini juries’ to debate discussion topics they are informed about in advance; a ‘political party’ game in which individuals identify other participants with similar views and work with them to construct their ideal media strategy to motivate carbon-reducing choices; and ‘mobility biography’ which adds a historical dimension to thestudy, seeking the origins of current attitudesand behaviour important for transport and the environment to an individual’s personal social and economic situation and key events in their past lives. The discussions will focus around five possible behaviours which could reduce the carbon emissions from transport, including walking, cycling and using public transport more, and adopting lower-carbon vehicles and fuels. Air transport is an important issue, but covered in a related, separate project. The outputs of the different research techniques will be brought together to construct a ‘typologies’ or characterisations of groups in society which have adopted similar attitudes toward the importance of transport activities to climate change and the options available to reduce climate change emissions. The typologies will assist Defra and other responsible agencies in targeting information and activities intended to reduce emissions at those specific groups, in order to make the more effective.

09/01/12