Climate change blog - Hubbub's Home Advantage
In this month’s climate change blog, Gavin Ellis and Lizzie Murray-Clark of environmental charity Hubbub, present the findings of their Home Advantage research project, which asked the question "what does net zero look like for the average UK home?"
Home Advantage
Home is where the heart is – and it’s also where we see a huge amount of potential for tackling climate change.
According to the Climate Change Committee, 32% of the emission reductions needed between now and 2035 to meet net zero are down to the choices made by households, and 63% involves them in some way. However, Hubbub polling shows only 45% of people know which of their actions most impact climate change.
This inspired us to create Home Advantage. A blueprint for what UK households really think of sustainable living, what stands in their way and what would help them to do more.
Empowering UK households
We brought together a group of businesses, including Barratt Redrow, B&Q, Starbucks UK, TSB, Unilever UK and VMO2 and a cohort of 175 households in autumn 2024, to help understand how best we can support UK households to create the net zero homes of the future.
Using moderated online communities, supported by interviews, polls, surveys, and a focus group, we gathered in-depth first-hand data and insight on a range of topics including home energy and heating, food and diet and the everyday stuff we buy and throw away.
So, what did we learn...?
While Home Advantage was primarily a research project, we found that the households involved were much more empowered to make positive changes when armed with new knowledge and behavioural nudges.
Over half of participants became more confident in cooking vegetarian dishes at home by making simple ingredient swaps. In general households were either already doing or were open to adopting some or all the following behaviours:
- reducing food waste
- buying fewer clothes
- shopping second hand
- buying refurbished electronics
- changing boiler settings
- taking other small energy saving actions
- slightly reducing consumption of meat and dairy.
Not only that but taking part in Home Advantage made households MORE motivated to do their bit. 65% became more willing to cut energy use by 15% and 48% became more willing to reduce meat and dairy intake by 20%.
Our findings
Everyone has a role to play, and needs support to act - 75% of 501 UK homeowners said they were open to making changes to how they live in order to help cut emissions, with the right help and support from business and government.
Cost and affordability are crucial - Households often want reassurance that a choice or action is worth their investment of time and money.
Trust and influence are important - Trust is easily lost and hard to regain, and is influenced by personal experiences and perceived integrity, often built over time. Overall trust towards politicians, institutions and businesses was low, with many highlighting concerns about hidden motives, potential biases or conflicts of interest. Household’s trusted their friends, family, those who were similar to them, and those who they had built relationships with, including tradespeople.
Work is needed to improve narrative, choice and framing - There is a role for communications from business, government and communities, to help create a positive narrative about the path to net zero.
To help translate these findings into wider actions Hubbub has developed a practical roadmap to help households live more sustainably.
Opportunities for Local Authorities
Getting households heat pump ready – Participants were receptive to home energy improvements when framed as incremental steps to move away from gas. This included sharing how changes such as induction hobs, underfloor heating, and wider radiators would make their home “heat pump ready” for the future.
Focus on choice not sacrifice - Choice is very important, especially for identity-linked decisions, such as eating meat and dairy and clothing choices, and messaging should focus on incremental steps and focus on the positives, not what’s missing. There’s an opportunity to build on curiosity when framing eating more vegetables and incrementally reducing meat and dairy, to drive social norming.
Stimulating a sharing economy – Awareness of local sharing and repairing initiatives were low, but participants were extremely supportive of schemes including Repair Cafes and Library of Things, and wanted more of them in their local area.
Sharing positive stories – Positive and aspirational storytelling is needed from people across the UK to build public demand and trust, and there’s an opportunity for public engagement to tap into timely moments like home energy upgrade journeys to influence and support households with consistent, engaging, positive messages.
Our 12 recommendations to business and government
The insights from Home Advantage have helped create 12 recommendations for business and/or government. Applying the overarching principles and recommendations from this report could help to make huge strides towards the third of emissions reduction required by 2035 that relies on the decisions of households.
You can explore the details of these recommendations and the insights that have shaped them in the full report below:
Read the executive summary and appendix
You can access the recording of the webinar here using the passcode below.
Passcode: M*6iG.K#
We hope some of the findings, insight and recommendations from this report can help business, government and NGOs better support households to contribute towards net zero.
If you’d like to discuss any of the findings in this report, or work with us on the solutions, get in touch [email protected]
Further information
- ADEPT's Climate Change hub
- ADEPT Climate Change Board
- Find out more about the work of Hubbub here.
Authors
Gavin Ellis, Director and Lizzie Murray-Clark, Creative Partner of environmental charity Hubbub
