WASHINGTON, July 21, 2016 - The energy-saving behavior of
children who participated in an energy conservation program continued after the
program ended, and the behavior also spread to their parents, says a team of researchers
from Oregon State University (OSU) and Stanford University.
The Girls Learning Environment and Energy (GLEE) program
provided two energy-saving “interventions” designed to promote energy-saving
behaviors either at home or in food and transportation decisions. Some 318
fourth- and fifth-grade girls from Girl Scout troops in northern California
took part in the study,
recently published in the journal Nature Energy.
The program’s designers utilized best practices from social
cognitive theory and public health interventions to guide the program’s design,
recognizing the importance of making projects fun and engaging. The researchers
say that the program’s goal was to get the girls actively practicing and
mastering skills and modeling behaviors that would lead to reduced energy use.
The study found that the children’s increased energy-saving
behavior, such as turning off power strips at night and washing clothes in cold
water, continued for more than seven months after the trial program ended – and
the parents’ energy-saving behavior continued for more than eight months.
Hilary
Boudet, an assistant professor of climate change and energy at Oregon State
and the paper’s lead author, says the findings suggest that these kinds of
educational programs could have a significant and lasting impact on family
energy consumption.
“Children are a critical audience for environmental
programs, because their current behavior likely predicts future behavior,” says
Boudet, who teaches in the School of Public Policy at OSU’s College of Liberal
Arts. “By adopting energy-saving behaviors now and engaging family and
community members in such efforts, children can play an important role in
bringing about a more sustainable future.”
The reported behavior changes associated with the home
energy program represent an annual household energy savings of approximately
3-5 percent immediately following the intervention and 1-3 percent at follow-up,
say the study’s authors. The researchers note that those savings become quite
significant if magnified across the population.
Based on GLEE’s initial success, the team is working to
disseminate the curriculum to Girl Scout leaders around the country. They also
hope to adapt the program for other groups, including schools and youth-focused
organizations such as 4-H.
The study was supported by grants from the Energy Department,
the California Energy Commission, the Child Health Research Institute and the
Precourt Energy Efficiency Center.
For more information about the GLEE program, click here.
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