Living Lightly: How does Climate Change Feature in Residential Home Improvements and What are the Implications for Policy?

Abstract

Ageing domestic housing stock is frequently remodelled and remade to suit homeowners' aspirations and to comply with changing expectations about the home, its appearance and function. In the context of preparing for climate change, it can be argued that significant improvements to existing stock and changes to how it is inhabited are required to improve the environmental performance of residential dwellings. Yet home improvement, environmental performance and household practice rarely occur together in social enquiry. Drawing on Hobson's framing of the ‘rationalisation discourse of sustainable consumption’ we explore the assumed links between homeowners' concerns for the environment, home improvement consumption and household practice. Amongst other findings, we demonstrate that although there is some association amongst these elements, the links are weak. To achieve real change towards climate change mitigation we suggest future policy and programs need to look beyond such simple causal links between attitudes and behaviour and draw on a deeper understanding of the social practices and associated systems of provision implicated in daily life.

Keywords:

• Housing consumption
• home improvement
• climate change
• social practice
• environmental concern

Acknowledgements

The research on which this article is based was funded by the Australian Government. The authors would like to thank colleagues at The University of Tasmania, Queensland University of Technology, The University of Western Australia and The University of Technology Sydney for their efforts in data collection and Nicola Willand and Helaine Stanley at the Centre for Design, RMIT University for their assistance with data analysis. The authors also thank colleagues Dave Mercer and Alan Pears at RMIT University and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this article. Last but not least, sincere thanks also go to all of the homeowners who participated in the interviews.