Cecily Maller

Housing renovations and energy efficiency: insights from homeowners’ practices

Renovation/retrofit is a key policy measure to reduce energy and emissions in existing residential stock. Existing approaches are typically based on assumptions about individual attitudes and technical–rational models, reliant on regulations and incentive programmes to influence homeowner ‘behaviour’. However, insufficient evaluation, together with inadequate attention given to the social dimensions of renovation, result in considerable uncertainty over the effectiveness of such policies. Drawing on ethnographic case studies informed by theories of social practice, this paper examines to what extent low energy and other environmental concerns come into play in renovations when they are conceptualized as social practices. A practice theory approach is adopted to analyze the intersection of renovations with homeowners’ practices. The analysis highlights the disparity between policy intentions for energy efficiency and everyday life. Findings reveal retrofit practices are mediated by the performance of practices comprising daily routines, both current and those anticipated in the future. Current policies and programmes focused on technical interventions to improve energy efficiency will have limited reach and impact. Instead, it is suggested, among other interventions, that policies to reduce the environmental impact of housing should be reframed around and positioned to address the mundane practices of everyday life.

Curious energy consumers: Humans and nonhumans in assemblages of household practice

In international energy policy, programmes and consumer research, a dominant ideal consumer is emerging. This consumer is typically a human adult who has the agency to make autonomous, functional and rational decisions about his or her household’s energy consumption. This article seeks to disrupt this dominant anthropocentric conceptualisation of the consumer and provide new ways of knowing and potentially intervening in the lives of energy consumers. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with householders living in Sydney, Australia, and theories of practice, materiality and agency from sociology and science and technology studies, we seek to understand consumers as human and nonhuman actants operating in distributed assemblages of practice. We explore the implications of conceptualising non-traditional consumers of energy, such as babies, pets, pests and pool pumps, as performers of or materials in practices that consume energy. Our analysis provides new ways of potentially intervening in patterns of energy consumption. We argue that policy makers need to refocus their attention on finding routes into assemblages of practice to achieve change. We conclude by calling for further exploration and recognition of the myriad curious consumers found in households.

Rediscovering Nature in Everyday Settings: Or How to Create Healthy Environments and Healthy People

It is estimated that half of the world’s population now live in urban environments. Urban living necessitates a removal from nature, yet evidence indicates that contact with nature is beneficial for human health. In fact, everyday urban places, such as where people live, study, and work, provide opportunities to bring nature back into cities to contribute to positive, healthy environments for people and to foster the human–nature connection. The inclusion of more nature in cities could have additional environmental benefits, such as habitat provision and improving the environmental performance of built environments. In the context of climate change, outcomes such as these assume further importance. This article explores how common urban places can foster links between people and nature, and generate positive health and well-being outcomes. We achieve this by exploring nature in the everyday settings of schools and residential housing.

Towards explaining the health impacts of residential energy efficiency interventions - A realist review. Part 1: Pathways.

This paper is Part 1 of a realist review that tries to explain the impacts of residential energy efficiency interventions (REEIs) on householder health. According to recent systematic reviews residential energy efficiency interventions may benefit health. It is argued that home energy improvement are complex interventions and that a better understanding of the latent mechanisms and contextual issues that may shape the outcome of interventions is needed for effective intervention design. This realist review synthesises the results of 28 energy efficiency improvement programmes. This first part provides a review of the explanatory factors of the three key pathways, namely warmth in the home, affordability of fuel and psycho-social factors, and the pitfall of inadequate indoor air quality. The review revealed that REEIs improved winter warmth and lowered relative humidity with benefits for cardiovascular and respiratory health. In addition, residential energy efficiency improvements consolidated the meaning of the home as a safe haven, strengthened the householders perceived autonomy and enhanced social status. Although satisfaction with the home proved to be an important explanation for positive mental health outcomes, financial considerations seemed to have played a secondary role. Evidence for negative impacts was rare but the risk should not be dismissed. Comprehensive refurbishments were not necessarily more effective than thermal retrofits or upgrades. A common protocol for the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of interventions would facilitate the synthesis of future studies. Householder and contextual influences are addressed in Part 2.

The relationships between characteristics of milking sheds and the attitudes to dairy cows, working conditions, and quality of life of dairy farmers

This study consisted of a survey of dairy farmers and their milking sheds at 198 Victorian dairy farms to examine the relationships between physical features in the milking shed and a number of job-related characteristics of the farmer, such as attitudes to handling cows and job satisfaction. Furthermore, farmers’ opinions of the effects of specific design features of the milking shed on cow behaviour were sought. A further objective of this survey was to use the relationships between shed characteristics and job-related characteristics of the farmer to identify, for future research, possible features of the milking shed that may affect cow behaviour. There was substantial variation in both the behavioural beliefs of farmers about cow behaviour in the milking shed and reports by farmers on comfort and working conditions in the dairy, indicating that considerable opportunities exist to improve these key job-related characteristics. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the responses to the questions on job-related characteristics of the farmer identified 6 factors: 2 of the factors identified were related to behavioural beliefs by farmers about cow behaviour (labelled ‘Cow Movement’ and ‘Cow Behaviour’); one of the factors related to comfort of the farmer in the shed (labelled ‘Operator Comfort’); and 3 of the factors related to aspects of the quality of life of the farmer (labelled ‘Workload’, ‘Farmer Mood’, and ‘Job Characteristics’). Positive beliefs about both cow movement (factor called Cow Movement) and cow behaviour (factor called Cow Behaviour) were correlated with farmers being more positive about working in the dairy (factor called Operator Comfort; P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively) and the characteristics of the job (factor called Job Characteristics; P < 0.01). These relationships suggest that improvements in cow behaviour may lead to improvements in both job satisfaction and the quality of life of the farmer. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed that a number of the shed features, such as height of the breast rail, presence of stall gates, length and width of the platform and solid side on first milking bail, were significant predictors of one or more of these 6 PCA factors. Although these results may not reflect causal relationships, these relationships between shed characteristics and a number of job-related characteristics of the farmer highlight the potential importance of shed design to both the cow and the farmer and provide a valuable guide in identifying features of milking sheds that require future examination as to their effects on cow behaviour.

Low carbon, water-efficient house retrofits: an emergent niche?

Rising carbon and water footprints of housing present a significant policy challenge across the Westernized world, and this has led to a growing range of government policies and programmes designed to promote greater residential energy and water efficiency. An analysis of low carbon/energy renovations is presented based on interviews with homeowner renovators and project managers in Australia. The renovators included self-declared ‘green renovators’ and other, more typical ‘general’ renovators. The project managers included a range of builders, designers, coordinators and retrofitters who provided specialized low carbon/water renovation services. Using the idea of niches and multilayer perspective (MLP), the analysis reveals both the limits to government initiatives promoting low carbon/water renovations and the importance of aspirations and relations in the low carbon/water housing renovation niche. The use of deep enquiry using semi-structured interviews reveals a detailed picture of these relations that cross the ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ sides of housing renovation. These relations reveal interdependence and tensions that profoundly shape low carbon/water renovations. Such relations should be explicitly accounted for in the design of government programmes and regulations.

Utilising Mixed Methods Research to Inform Low-carbon Social Housing Performance Policy

Abstract There is an over reliance on cost-benefit analysis in the policy development and evaluation of sustainable housing outcomes. This paper presents both qualitative and quantitative analyses from a multi-year mixed methods evaluation of four new low-carbon social houses in regional Victoria, Australia. Through a cost-benefit lens the housing was not financially viable. Householder interviews highlighted positive social outcomes such as improved health. A narrow focus by housing performance policy makers on cost-benefit analysis results in important understandings about housing and householders being overlooked or undervalued; inclusion of multiple evaluation methods can help to reflect a more realistic sustainable housing future.

Understanding the Materiality of Neighbourhoods in ‘Healthy Practices’: Outdoor Exercise Practices in a New Master-planned Estate

Abstract The importance of neighbourhood design for health outcomes is well-established. Yet interactions between people and neighbourhood features, and how they are incorporated into daily routines, remain conceptually and empirically underdeveloped. Using theories of social practice this paper foregrounds the materiality of neighbourhoods to understand the role of natural and built features in everyday practices of physical activity. Drawing on longitudinal data about residents who recently moved to a master-planned estate, we discuss our findings in regard to the implications for those involved in designing and building new neighbourhoods. Our findings show how the presence—or absence—of certain material features affects the performance, frequency and timing of practices, such that they were modified, shifted to other (indoor) forms, or not performed at all. In addition, to effect change the meanings about, and skills to perform, exercise practices need to be supported in addition to their material elements. Lastly, the timing and synchronisation of exercise practices in relation to other daily routines is crucial to their ongoing performance. In focusing on how the material features of neighbourhoods co-constitute practices of outdoor physical activity we provide new insights into how design is implicated in health and wellbeing.

Adapting to ‘extreme’ weather: mobile practice memories of keeping warm and cool as a climate change adaptation strategy

Recent climate change adaptation policy positions previously mundane weather events, such as heatwaves and coldsnaps, as increasingly dangerous. Within this discourse of ‘extreme’ weather, the health sector is promoting climate-controlled indoor environments as a sensible coping strategy. Such responses mask our constant and ongoing adaptations to weather, which are becoming more dynamic and varied in mobile and globalised societies. In this paper, we are interested in reconceptualising adaptation as a series of everyday and remembered experiences with weather, which are situated within and carried by bodily social practices that contribute to keeping warm and cool. We are particularly concerned with what happens to these practices when those who carry them become mobile, through migration to other countries and climates. We consider the proposition that practices involved in staying warm or cool become more adaptable and innovative when they move. We explore these ideas through a study of international students who had recently moved to Melbourne, Australia from a range of countries. Using a ‘practice memory scrapbook’ method, we consider how student practices are resurrected, modified and/or transformed on arrival to a new locale, where memories are carried forward and disrupted by local varieties. Our analysis redefines the goal of adaptation as achieving tolerable, interesting, manageable, exciting, challenging and curious conditions; rather than pursuing comfort, familiarity and safety. We conclude that increasing exposure to varied weather conditions may enhance adaptive responses, and call for further research with mobile populations to provide further insight into adaptation to weather.

‘A fantasy to get employment around the area’: long commutes and resident health in an outer urban master-planned estate

Abstract The Selandra Rise master-planned estate (MPE) in Melbourne’s south-east growth corridor was designed to create a “healthy and engaged community” through the provision of parks, physical activity opportunities and community facilities. A 5 year longitudinal study researched the impact on residents. Over one third of residents spent 2 to 3 h per day commuting and high levels of dissatisfaction with commutes were found. Longer commute times were associated with poor physical activity and weight outcomes. The paper concludes that provisions for health and wellbeing within an MPE are insufficient when opportunities for local employment are limited and broader locational, connectivity and transport disadvantages are not addressed.