A Study on the Factors Characterizing Willingness to Conserve
Energy Among Urbanites
Rutwik Gandhe
a
and Sheeba Joseph
b
The Bhopal School of Social Sciences, India
Keywords: Energy, Energy Conservation Behaviour, Urbanites, Energy Conservation, Energy-Efficiency, Households.
Abstract: This study attempts to analyse the willingness to conserve electricity among urbanites of Bhopal city in central
India. Willingness to conserve electricity is one of the core aspects of adopting a sustainable and energy-
efficient lifestyle. Five hundred and fifty (n=550) energy-sufficient households having valid electricity meters
were surveyed from different locations in Bhopal city. Data on energy conservation behaviour were analysed
using binary logistic regression. Findings suggest that energy conservation willingness was higher among
individuals who were educated, had high power and fuel expenditure with larger house space and size, with
a high degree of interaction about energy conservation in the neighbourhood, demonstrating higher orientation
of individual values, greater belief for energy conversation, higher subjective norms, sharper energy
conservation attitude, higher perceived behaviour control and stronger behaviour intention. Psycho-social
factors outweigh the socio-economic factors in predicting the willingness to conserve electricity. Policy
implications of the findings have been discussed
1 INTRODUCTION
Rapid urbanization has resulted in a sharp rise in
electricity consumption even in the hinterlands of
India which has drawn the attention of researchers
and policymakers toward electricity conservation
among urban households to combat several climatic
and environmental targets. Household energy
conservation has assumed popularity among
researchers in recent times against the backdrop of
the oil supply shocks of the 1970s. Global warming,
climate change and other threats to biodiversity
make it necessary to study energy conservation
behaviour (Gardner & Stern, 2002). Stern (2008)
event goes to argue that home-based behaviour
related to energy usage significantly affects our
future, sustainability and environment. Therefore, it
is imperative to realise a future energy system that
is carbon-efficient, safe, and trustworthy. To
achieve this goal, we need to give due importance
to household as basic unit of assessment as
suggested by Hayn, Bertsch, & Fichtner (2014).
They have also established the significance of
segmentation of household as per the residential
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4271-8665
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1302-9825
electricity loading profile. Scholars have found family
size, climate, appliance ownership, lifestyle, physical
characteristics of a house and human energy behaviour
as main antecedents for energy conservation behavior
among urban population. (Baxter et al., 1986;
Palmborg, 1986; Mullaly, 1998; Brandon & Lewis,
1999).
Therefore, predicting wiliness to conserve energy at
households become crucial to study and we adopt
theory of planed behavior framework for doing that as
it has been found quite effective in promoting pro-
social behaviour (Shepherd, Hartwick & Warshaw,
1988). This provides a basis for trying out a model
merging TPB variables with other socio-economic and
socio-demographic variables to predict the individual
willingness to conserve energy.
In this study we attempt to find what factors directly
characterise the willingness of human beings towards
energy conservation. The study has operationalized the
meaning of energy conservation behaviour in a way
that it is limited to power/electricity conservation for
the purpose of this research. Thus, household- centric
energy conservation behaviour of individuals in Indian
context becomes the focal point of this study. This
712
Gandhe, R. and Joseph, S.
A Study on the Factors Characterizing Willingness to Conserve Energy Among Urbanites.
DOI: 10.5220/0012502100003792
Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
In Proceedings of the 1st Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR 2023), pages 712-717
ISBN: 978-989-758-687-3
Proceedings Copyright © 2024 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda.

study undertakes this by conducting a large-scale
household survey, wherein households are proposed
to be selected in a purposive manner. Energy
conservation behaviour is function of many factors,
i.e., values, beliefs, norms and attitude of
individuals, culture, societal norms, socio-economic
situation of households, pricing of electricity,
consumption patterns or profile of individuals,
technological upgradation or adaptation etc. Among
all these, this study focuses the psycho-social
factors associated with individuals like values,
beliefs, norms, attitudes etc in general and attempts
to explore their role in determining energy
conservation in particular.
Finally, study attempts to ascertain whether people
are willing to adopt simple and voluntary steps that
contribute towards household electricity
conservation? If yes, what factors characterise
willingness to conserve energy among urbanites.
The focus here is only on willingness to conserve
electricity at households.
2 METHOD
2.1 Participants
Data were collected from urban areas of Bhopal. An
interview schedule was carried out in outer region of
Bhopal city to gauge the willingness of energy
conservation behaviour among urbanites. The survey
was conducted during daytime from 8AM-6PM.
Those who were available and agreed to participate in
the survey were interviewed. Five-hundred and fifty
households were surveyed, aged 18 years and above
were interviewed.
Table 1. Sample profile
Variables DS Willingness (Yes) Willingness (No)
Age M(SD) 38.78(14.77) 38.30(14.61)
Gender: Male N
(
%
)
206
(
53.2
)
88
(
54.0
)
Female N
(
%
)
181
(
46.8
)
75
(
46.0
)
CFL LED: Not
yet
N (%) 49(12.7) 18(11.0)
: Partiall
y
N
(
%
)
260
(
67.2
)
115
(
70.6
)
: Full
y
N
(
%
)
78
(
20.2
)
30
(
18.4
)
House type:
Apartment
N (%) 182(47.0) 81(49.7)
Du
p
lex N
(
%
)
134
(
34.6
)
64
(
39.3
)
Bungalow &
Multi-storeye
d
N (%) 71(18.3) 18(11.0)
Per ca
p
ita AMFE M
(
SD
)
2067.75
(
1066.34
)
1011.66
(
2118.98
)
HH size: Up to 3
members
N (%) 148(38.2) 58(35.6)
more than 3
members
N (%) 239(61.8) 105(64.4)
PEEC: Don’t
know
N (%) 190(49.1) 64(39.3)
No N
(
%
)
73
(
18.9
)
39
(
23.9
)
Yes N
(
%
)
124
(
32.0
)
60
(
36.8
)
Source: Primary data
The interviewee average age was around 38.0 years
among both the categories. More than 53.0% of
respondent from both the categories were male and
around 46.0% were female. Around two-third of
respondents from both the categories were partially
shifting towards CFL-LED, more than 18.0% were
fully shifting whereas more than 11.0% of
respondents from both the categories were not
shifting towards it. Half of the respondents were
living in apartment whereas around one-third were
living in duplex and rest were living in bungalow and
multi-storeyed. Average monthly fuel expenditure was
Rs.2067.75 among willingness categories and almost
half, Rs.1011.66 was among non-willingness
categories. Almost two-third of the respondents were
from both the categories were having more than three
members in their houses whereas the rest of the
respondents have up to three members in their houses.
More than 40.0% of respondents from both the
categories were not aware of their expectation of
A Study on the Factors Characterizing Willingness to Conserve Energy Among Urbanites
713

energy conservation, around 20.0% were having no
expectation and the remaining around one-third of
respondent have expectation regarding energy
conservation (Table1).
2.2 Measures
An interview schedule was developed to assess the
willingness of energy conservation behaviour
among the residents of Bhopal with different facets
of energy conservation behaviour, value orientation
of individuals, energy conservation belief,
subjective norms, energy conservation attitude,
perceived behavioural control and behavioural
intention. The interview schedule was preceded by
an informed consent form, socio-demographic
details of the interviewee and his or her family
members.
The item measuring variables were factor analysed,
convergent validity and composite reliability were
established. For a multi-item variable, the response
score of the items were summated and divided by
number of items to keep the score within the range
of the response scale.
Willingness to reduce your energy consumption was
willingness of the respondent to reduce their energy
consumption. It was assessed on a two point scale
from 1(=Yes) and 0 (=No).
Average monthly power expenditure was power
expenditure of the family incurred on power in a
month.
Avergae monthly incomeof the households was the
monthly icnome of the family from all the sources.
Education was gauged from the respondents as
number of years put into formal education. It was
assesed as 1(=Non graduate), 2(= Graduate), 3(=
Post-graduate or advance) and 4(= Professionally
qualified).
Occupational situation was measured on nature of
occupation carried out by the respondent. It was
assessed as 1(=enterpreneur), 2(=Salaried),
3(=established business).
House space was measured as number of person
living in a particular house. It was categorised as 1(=
up to 3 member) and 2(= more than 3 member).
Ownership status was gauged from the respondent
as the position of the house n which they are living.
The response categories agaisnt each item were as
1(=Own) and 2(=Rented).
Neighbourhood interaction on energy conservation
was measured on four-point Likert scale from
1(=Never), 2(= Very rarely), 3(=Sometimes), and 4
(= Quite often).
Value orientation of individuals was measured on three
dimensions of egoistic (to control and dominate others,
strive only for material possession and money in life,
absolute rights to lead or command over others, impact
on people and events around); altruistic value (Equal
opportunity for all, enjoy peace, free of war and
conflict, care for the weak and fight injustice in society,
engage oneself with working for the welfare of others;
bio-spherical value (protect natural resources and
conserve energy, respect towards mother earth and its
resource and try to live in harmony with other species,
lead a life that is in unity with nature and fitting to it,
efforts to protect the environment and protect the nature
on a nine-point Likert scale from 1(=Not important) to
9(= Very Important).
Energy conservation belief, Subjective norms, Energy
conservation attitude, Perceived behavioural control
and Behavioural intention was gauged on a nine-point
Likert scale with 1 indicting lowest possible scope to 9
indicating highest one.
All the variables and factors reported above had
composite reliability (>.70) and convergent validity
{Average variance extracted (AVE) >.50 to measure
the construct or the factor.
2.3 Data Analysis
The filled in schedules were entered in the spread-sheet
for analysis in SPSS-21. The data were analysed using
descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression.
3 RESULTS
Per capita average monthly power expenditure and
average monthly income of the household was more
among non-willingness than willingness. Compared to
willingness, non-graduate was slightly more than non-
willingness family whereas there were more graduate,
post-graduate, and professionally qualified among
willingness than non-willingness, more entrepreneur,
salaried, and established businessman, having little
higher house space, more respondent having their own
houses and rented, having neighbourhood interaction
from different categories of never, very rarely,
sometimes, quite often, slightly more from all the
psychological variables like value orientation of
individual, energy conservation belief, subjective
norms, energy conservation attitude, perceived
behavioural control, and behavioural intention.
The above factors described the awareness of people
towards energy conservation but it did not disclose
which factors characterises the awareness and non-
awareness people regarding energy conservation.
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714

Because of binary nature of outcome (1= awareness
vs. 0= non-awareness), binary logistic regression
was applied. Sixteen variables that were supposed
to characterize the willingness vs. non-willingness
were entered as explanatory variables— value
orientation of individual, energy conservation
belief, subjective norms, attitude, perceived
behavioural control, behaviour intention, average
monthly power expenditure, average monthly
income expenditure, education from non-graduate,
graduate, and professionally qualified, occupational
situation, house space, neighbourhood interaction of
energy conservation, and ownership status. Those
were either coded as dummy variables or were
continuous variables, shown in Table 2.
In logistic regression, values of odds ratios (ORs)
with 95 per cent confidence interval were used to
estimate logistic coefficients. ORs greater than 1
indicate an increased chance with probability > .50
of willingness against non-willingness. The logistic
model significantly separated between willingness
and non-willingness, χ
2
(8) = 15.49, p<.05. The
model explains the 8.7% (Nagelkerke R
2
) of the
variance of willingness status and correctly classified
72.0% of cases. The variances of willingness were
impressive with 87% correct prediction and of non-
willingness were 50.3%.
The people who were willingness for energy
conservation were more educated but the variance does
not differentiate between willingness and non-
willingness. When its affect was controlled
occupational situation, neighborhood interaction, and
ownership status did not differentiate between
willingness and non-willingness. The silent
characteristics associated with willingness as compared
to non-willingness was higher value orientation of
individuals, energy conservation beliefs, subjective
norms, energy conservation attitude, perceived
behavioral control, behaviour intention, average
monthly power expenditure, average monthly income
of households, occupational situation, and house space
because the 95% confidence interval of ORs of these
indicators did not contain a value less than one (Table
2).
Table 2. Variable predicting willingness for energy conservation
Variables in the
equation
β SE df Sig. Odds
ratio
95% CI for Exp.
(β)
LowerUpper
AMPE .00 .00 1 .37 1.00 1.00 1.00
AMIH .00 .00 1 .18 1.00 1.00 1.00
Education: NG -.30 .35 1 .39 .74 .37 1.47
: Graduate -.51 .26 1 .04 .60 .36 .99
: PQ -.40 .28 1 .16 .67 .39 1.17
Occupational
Situation: EB
.00 .24 1 1.00 1.00 .62 1.60
: Entrepreneur .01 .37 1 .98 1.01 .49 2.10
House space .00 .00 1 .47 1.00 1.00 1.00
NIEC: N -.29 .10 1 .00 .75 .62 .90
Ownership status:
Owne
d
-.82 .28 1 .00 .44 .25 .76
VOI -.00 .01 1 .90 .99 .99 1.01
ECB .01 .00 1 .07 1.01 1.00 1.02
SN .00 .01 1 .97 1.00 .99 1.01
ECA .01 .00 1 .20 1.01 1.00 1.01
PBC .00 .01 1 .49 1.00 .99 1.01
BI .01 .01 1 .43 1.01 .99 1.02
Constant .17 .77 1 .82 1.19
A Study on the Factors Characterizing Willingness to Conserve Energy Among Urbanites
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4 DISCUSSION
This study investigates the factor characterizing the
willingness of people towards energy conservation
behavior and binary logistic regression was
performed using data collected from 550 households
for identifying factors. Here only one from of
household energy i.e., electricity has been considered.
Energy is a challenging issue across the world, which
leads its inclusion into sustainable development goals
(UNDP, 2015).
Average Monthly Income of the Household (AMIH)
and Average Monthly Power Expenditure (AMPE)
were the two major socio-economic factors
responsible to explain their willingness to conserve
energy. Households with large income normally
occupy houses with large spaces which enhance their
power expenditure making them conscious towards
energy bills. As electricity units consumed over &
above a certain limit, they are charged with higher
tariff. House-space therefore also emerges as a factor
that influence the energy conservation decision of the
households. Occupational situation also emerged as a
major factor that characterize energy conservation
behavior. In our data, respondents were either
entrepreneur, salaried or had established business in
our sample. Entrepreneurs and people with
established business were found to be more
concerned towards energy conservation as opposed to
salaried people which is quite logical as entrepreneur
and established businessman are more concerned
about saving energy because of low input cost in their
business which is ultimately going to increase their
profit. The ownership status was also found to
contribute towards reducing their electricity bills
more so in case of house being occupied by the home
owners. Households with rented accommodation did
not show same level of interest in saving energy.
These findings are consistent with previous findings
where home ownership along with high income of the
household, social context and household energy
conservation practices are the factors responsible for
energy conservation behaviour to be executed. Home
owners and high-income households are more likely
to invest and therefore more willing to invest in
conserving energy than renters and low-income
households. Factors associated with house space &
building characteristics and income too, are among
most dominant influencers towards household energy
usage. Abdullah et al. (2019). Energy conservation
technology adoption is the manifestation of
willingness to conserve energy. It is normally the
owner of the house who is takes the decision to invest
/ adopt in new technologies that lead to energy
conservation. Recently, Zedan S & Miller W (2017)
also suggest that owner occupied housing cases are
more prone to conserve energy in urban households
in their study using social network analysis.
All the six psychometric variables—(i) value
orientation of individuals (ii) energy conservation
belief (iii) subjective norms (iv) energy conservation
attitude (v) perceived behavioural control and (vi)
behaviour intention, all were contributing to
individual perception of willingness for energy
conservation. These findings are consistent with this
widely established understanding that psycho-social
aspects thus predict the willingness, and intent to
conserve energy or any such pro-social behaviour. In
last one decade, studies using Norm Activation
Model (NAM), Value Beliefs and Norm (VBN)
theory and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) have
argued emphatically the role of factors associated
with Values, Beliefs, Norms, Attitudes, Perceived
Behavioral Control and Behaviour Intention
(Abrahamse, W., & Steg, L., 2011; Zhang Y. et al,
2013; Werff Ellen van der & Steg L. 2015).
5 CONCLUSION AND POLICY
IMPLICATIONS
Each of these findings have critical policy
implications. First, regardless of the socio-economic
and socio-demographic realities, energy conservation
willingness can still greatly be influenced and shaped
by psycho-social factors, therefore interventions and
programmes that promote appropriate values, beliefs,
develop certain normative behavioural standards,
shapes & builds right attitudes, and are potentially
capable of inducing intention to promote energy
conservation in society any form, must be
encouraged. Second, the technology-based approach
of employing green and energy efficient equipment
has its limitations so far as energy conservation for
household is concerned as rebound effect will always
be at play, nonetheless it doesn’t suggest that ways &
means other than those associated with influencing
human psyche are not be pursued for energy
conservation (Lorna A. et al 2000; Ouyang J. et al,
2010).
Among the psycho-social factors, beliefs, norms
attitudes can be influenced directly therefore social
campaigns and different socio-economic
interventions can be planned for influencing them
towards improving the will and intent of the
individuals to conserve energy. Some suggestions
could be 1) role of the housing associations can be
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revisited to influence factors like attitudes greatly
adopting feedback of peer organizations and feedback
from authorities as suggested by Egmond et al (2005),
2) electricity provider companies can send regular
feedback reports which can do wonders by inducing,
subjective, personal and injunctive norms. In this
context case of OPOWER presented by Allcott,
(2011) can be a good example. Similar non-price
interventions can be thought in India to promote
energy efficient behaviour. Effective social
campaigns with cogent communication strategies can
help change the beliefs of common urbanite
pertaining to urgency of energy conservation. Finally,
price-based interventions like offering subsidy on
energy bill if the consumption remains to a certain
limits and other innovative experiments can be
planned to achieve the targets for energy conservation
in any form.
So far as pricing strategy is concerned, one such
scheme is already being implemented in the state of
Madhya Pradesh, where residents under Atal Grih
Jyoti Yojana are charged for all units consume only if
they consume more than 150 units of electricity. If the
consumption remains within a limit of 150 units, then
the bill per unit is waived off. This scheme has been
very effective in making many households willing to
keep their electricity usage within 150 units in Urban
areas of the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.
One more interesting policy implication is the
combined effect of monthly income & expenditure
along with occupational situation. All of three aspects
significantly influence the willingness to conserve
energy (see result: Table 02), which indicates that
entrepreneurs are more willing to conserve electricity.
A country like India which is one of the youngest
nations and has immense potential for start-ups,
chances are bright that more and more population will
be willing to conserve energy when we combine it
with the fact that new start-ups can’t spent
enormously and have to be more disciplined with
their expenditure on any aspects including power.
When more households would be self-dependent on
their new enterprise, energy conservation specially in
terms of electricity will then gain the momentum in
India.
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