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Consumer behaviours: Teaching children to save energy

Nature Energy volume 1, Article number: 16108 (2016) Cite this article

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Energy-saving programmes are increasingly targeted at children to encourage household energy conservation. A study involving the assignment of energy-saving interventions to Girl Scouts shows that a child-focused intervention can improve energy-saving behaviours among children and their parents.

Unlike most educational interventions set in schools, the study by Boudet and colleagues involved 30 troops of Girl Scouts (with an average age of 9.6 years) from northern California and their parents. This unusual setting is justified by the fact that one in two women in the US has been a Girl Scout member for an average of four years. The researchers designed and tested two educational programmes aimed at improving the energy-related behaviour of the children and their families: the first focused on the energy savings of the household and the second on food choice and means of personal transportation.

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Figure 1: Total energy consumption by sector.

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  1. Alice Grønhøj is in the Department of Management, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 10, 1327-122, Denmark.,

    Alice Grønhøj

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  1. Alice Grønhøj
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Correspondence to Alice Grønhøj.

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Grønhøj, A. Consumer behaviours: Teaching children to save energy. Nat Energy 1, 16108 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.108

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.108

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