Behavioural Energy and Travel Tracker: Results report 2 - Summer 2023

Behavioural Insights for Policy series: Primary research  

Year: 2023 

Topic: Everyday energy behaviours 

Methodology: Survey  

Author: SEAI Behavioural Economics Unit  

Summary

Changing individual behaviour alone will not solve the energy and climate crises, but the choices individuals make every day do contribute a significant proportion of Ireland's energy use and associated emissions, while also impacting on their own financial wellbeing.

Since December 2022, SEAI's Behavioural Economics Unit has supported the Irish government's efforts to educate and encourage citizens and businesses to use less energy by running the Behavioural Energy and Travel Tracker (BETT). BETT is an online survey that tracks residential and travel-related energy consumption behaviours of people in Ireland. The motivating idea behind BETT is that to understand energy consumption and how we can change it, we must first accurately measure behaviours and uncover the factors (structural, sociodemographic, psychological) that underlie them.

The first BETT report covered the first five waves that ran from December 2022 to April 2023, roughly corresponding to the winter or heating season. This report details results from the following five waves of BETT that ran from May 2023 to September 2023. BETT ran monthly throughout 2023 and continues to run on a quarterly basis in 2024. Future outputs will focus on deep dives into specific topics of interest.