An awareness based approach to sustainability
is the energy we never use ( Lopez-Lopez , Sissa , Natvig , 2011 ; Sissa , 2011 ).
Reduction programs are sometimes launched by local government or by utilities companies , like in Western Australia for water issues related to local climate changes ( Anda , Le Grey Brereton , Breman , & Paskett , 2013 ). Such initiatives are traditionally coupled with regulatory interventions in terms of laws or economic incentives .
An innovative approach consists instead on focusing on behavioral changes , so a lot of attention is given to provide consumers with information and services to manage their energy use ( Laskey & Kavazovic , 2010 ).
The paper starts from a basic tenet of social psychology : individuals are influenced by decisions , actions , and advice of other individuals , both consciously and unconsciously ( Cialdini , 2009 ). Therefore , we mainly focus on social influence , taking into consideration the diversity of actors that may exert a different kind of influence . Such notion of social diversity leads to a network of neighbors , composed by different types of agents who are more or less influential based on their level of environmental awareness . Social norms - as opposed to prescriptive ones ( Kinzing , 2013 ) – are pivotal in collective behavior and represent a turning point to reach the sustainability goals
The scientific contribution of this paper is to explore the potential of Agent- Based Modelling ( ABM ) to describe at micro level such influence and to observe at macro level its general effects on the resource consumption . In particular , we propose a model to represent awareness spread and to assess the importance of smart metering functions to turn awareness into sustainable behaviors . SAM4SN ( Spread of Awareness Model for Social Norms ) model aims to explore if and how environmental awareness can drive behavioral changes and how smart metering functions can support households in reducing or optimizing their resource consumption .
The paper is organized as follows . After an interdisciplinary overview on the issues linking environmental challenges , and in particular energy consumption , to individual awareness , behavioral changes and social norms we focus on environmental awareness as a social limiting factor to avoid overuse of a scarce or critical resource . Then we introduce the ABM paradigm to model the awareness spread mechanism and its effect on energy . Our model simulates social influence and its effects in achieving a given target of consumption reduction . Smart metering functions allows users to compare their consumption patterns with the ones of other consumers , as well as to dynamically re-define and share their personal reduction goals are seen as awareness catalyst . Thirdly , we introduce the concept of tipping point and its role in energy policy making . SAM4SN is a tool intended for decision makers to investigate situations as , for example , which initial configurations of different types of agent lead to sustainability and the required number of committed agents to enable a social norm . Such kind of investigation is important for planning campaigns or initiatives based on social norm effects . A decision maker can pivot for example on the idea of pilot programs to support selected groups of people to become proactive ; he can discover that a nucleus of strong initial commitment against an environmental cause can counter any effort to promote it .
SAM4SN model has been certified at OpenABM .
The full code of the model is available at http :// hdl . handle . net / 2286.0 / oabm . 463 and the full description of
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