Leading behaviour change expert and director of Monash University’s BehaviourWorks Australia, Professor Liam Smith, spoke at yesterday’s All Energy Australia Conference (Australia’s largest clean energy forum) on what is needed for the uptake of home energy upgrade programs at scale and what strategies can be implemented to overcome barriers. Monash Sustainable Development Institute is working with five other universities and CSIRO to solve the problem through the Energy Upgrades for Australian Homes program.
Available for comment:
Professor Liam Smith, Director of BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash University Sustainable Development Institute
Contact: +61 3 9904 7107 or liam.smith@monash.edu
The following can be attributed to Professor Smith:
“When encouraging Australians to upgrade their household energy, we need to meet them where they are; these upgrades have to work in practice, for real people with real lives. Not all of us have the same income, technical understanding, or supporting infrastructure for energy upgrades so a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. The role of the climate where a person lives is also a key factor.
“Recognising and addressing the systemic, social and behavioural factors that influence how people actually engage with energy upgrades in their homes is critical. The Monash-led Energy Upgrades for Australian Homes program will harness real-world insights from at least six place-based pilot projects conducted in diverse climate zones, building types and resident types across Australia. We will use this data to develop place-based strategies that will enable upgrades in 1 million existing Australian homes by 2030.”
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