Greening Household Behaviour: Overview From The 2011 Survey

Developing growth strategies that promote greener lifestyles requires a good understanding of the factors that affect people's behaviour towards the environment.

Recent OECD work based on periodic surveys of more than 10 000 households across a number of countries and areas represents a breakthrough by providing a common framework to collect unique empirical evidence for better policy design This publication presents a data overview of the most recent round of the survey implemented in five areas (energy, food, transport, waste, and water) and 11 countries: Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The new survey confirms the importance of providing the right economic incentives for influencing our decisions.

The findings indicate that "e;soft"e; measures such as labeling and public information campaigns also have a significant complementary role to play.

Spurring desirable behaviour change requires a mix of these instruments.