More on the frankly remarkable results from ‘home energy use’ Builders and Contractors take note. There is an opportunity here!

All respondents who had not installed cavity wall insulation, solid wall insulation or loft insulation (but were able to do so) were asked to say what the main reasons were for not doing so. Those who said they had not heard of that type of insulation and those who said it was not applicable to them were excluded from these questions.

Around 300 respondents (30% of those whose homes were constructed with cavity walls) had not installed cavity wall insulation. Respondents were most likely to say that they had not installed this form of insulation as they could not afford it (27%). Other key reasons provided included never having thought about it (14%), not knowing whether they had it already (11%), because they were waiting until they needed to do other major renovations (9%) and because it would take too long to get costs back through lower energy bills (7%).

Similar reasons were provided by the small proportion (16%) of respondents who had a loft but said they had not installed loft insulation or top-up loft insulation. Cost was the most frequently cited reason – a quarter (23%) said they could not afford to do this, 17% said they were waiting until they needed to do other major renovations, 15% had never thought about it, and 10% said that it required too much effort.

In contrast, respondents whose homes were constructed with solid walls were most likely to say that they had not installed solid wall insulation as they had never thought about it (27%). That said, cost was also a significant factor with one fifth saying that they could not afford to install this form of insulation (20%). Around one in ten indicated that they did not know if they already had it or not (11%) or that they did not know how to go about it or who to ask (8%).

This leads me to the question…. Does the government need to be more proactive when informing homeowners of energy saving options e.g. solid wall insulation. What about Government subsidies?

More from BuilderScrap.com on the recent Defra Survey. As a Builders Exchange we’re absolutely positive that you guys will know how well insulated your homes are…. check out the responses.

The survey also looked at home insulation. Again responses can be classified using the stages of change response scale. It should be noted that some respondents will have installed insulation or double glazing themselves but in many cases others will have moved into a property that already had insulation or double glazing. The group classified as “maintenance‟ in Table 7 includes both types of case.

It was most common for respondents (for whom it was practicable or relevant) to have already installed double glazing (89%) or loft insulation / top-up loft insulation (82%). Very few people were at the pre-contemplation stage (i.e. had either not heard of it or had not thought about doing this) or the rejection stage (i.e. had thought about it doing but had dismissed the idea). One in ten (10%) indicated that they were contemplating installing loft insulation or top-up loft insulation and 5% indicated that they were contemplating installing double glazing.

In the 2007 Defra survey a slightly higher proportion (94%) of respondents with lofts indicated that they had loft insulation. Similarly in tracker research carried out by the 28 Energy Saving Trust in August 2007, 94% of respondents indicated that they had at least some double-glazing, which is slightly higher than the 2009 survey. However, the question wording on these previous surveys was slightly different which may explain the apparent change – it seems improbable that the prevalence of loft insulation or double-glazing would have decreased over this period. In previous surveys respondents were asked simply whether they had any loft insulation in their home whereas in the current survey respondents were asked to respond using the stages of change scale described in this report.

Slightly more than half (57%) of those whose homes were constructed with cavity walls, had cavity wall insulation and around half of all respondents had draught exclusion for doors and or windows installed (46%). These levels are consistent with findings from previous research. The 2007 Defra survey showed that 59% of people in England who lived in homes with cavity walls had at least some cavity wall insulation. Research carried out by the Energy Saving Trust showed that 46% of people in England had draught exclusion in their homes. A relatively high proportion (19%) of respondents were at the pre-contemplation stage of installing draught exclusion suggesting that for many this was not something that they had considered.

Slightly more than one in ten (12%) of those whose homes were constructed with solid walls had solid wall insulation. Respondents were much more likely to be at the pre-contemplation stage for this behaviour – 31% were at this stage, indicating that a high proportion of those whose homes were constructed with solid walls “hadn’t really considered‟ this type of insulation. A relatively high proportion (21%) of respondents had rejected solid wall insulation as an option. There was also a high proportion of unclassified respondents due to people saying that this question was “not applicable‟ to them or because they did not know (31% of whose homes were constructed with solid walls).

Do you know about the construction of your own home?

This Defra survey looked at the types of actions that respondents said they were doing that directly reduce the amount of energy they were using in the home – for example, turning the heating down or boiling the kettle with a limited amount of water. Table 6 summarises the extent to which people had thought about, or tried each of these behaviours (using the stages of change response scale).  Here at BuilderScrap.com we look more at the reducing waste and energy on worldwide scale. Sharing, recycling and reclaiming building materials that otherwise would be sent to landfill…. therefore reducing costs.

Building Materials

The results show that most people said they were doing each of the five energy saving behaviours and intended to keep these up – few had tried the behaviours and later relapsed. Respondents were most likely to be doing and intending to keep doing the following behaviours:

• Only boiling the kettle with as much water as you need (84% said they had done this and intended to keep it up)
• Washing clothes at 40 degrees or less (77%)
• Cutting down on the use of gas and electricity at home (76%)

There had been a significant increase in those respondents who reported cutting down on the use of gas and electricity at home from 58% in the 2007 Defra survey to 76% in 2009. Fewer respondents reported turning down thermostats or cutting down on the use of hot water, though it was still a majority of respondents at 66% and 64% respectively.

For all five of the behaviours shown in Table 6, relatively small numbers of respondents reported relapsing (having tried the behaviour but stopped doing it) – 5% or less of respondents for each behaviour. Similarly, a relatively small proportion of respondents had rejected each behaviour before ever trying (between 3% and 9% of all respondents had rejected each of the five behaviours).

The majority of respondents had at least thought about adopting each of the five behaviours with only a small proportion being classified at the pre-contemplation stage (where they had either not heard of the behaviour or not thought about it). Just 6% of respondents were at the pre-contemplation stage for the first three behaviours shown (boiling the kettle with only as much water as you need, washing clothes at 40 degrees or less, and cutting down on the use of gas and electricity at home).

A larger proportion of respondents were either at the pre-contemplation stage (i.e. had either never heard of it or had not thought about doing it) or rejection stage (i.e. had thought about doing it but had dismissed the idea) for cutting down on the use of hot water at home (25% in total for both stages) and turning down thermostats (19% in total for both stages).

Here at BuilderScrap.com we’re looking at the actions people are taking to use less energy (primarily gas and electricity) in their homes and the extent to which saving energy in the home was seen as a priority. Any responsible building services company would be able to outline a plan that would detail energy saving in the home. Not only in the form of an energy efficiency rating but also the building materials and techniques used. Many of the questions covered in the previous post used the previously described stages of change response scales to assess willingness to adopt or adapt a behaviour.

Attitudes to saving energy in the home

All respondents were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I don’t really give much thought to saving energy in my home‟. As shown in Figure 5, a large majority (77%) of respondents disagreed with this statement. Around one in seven (14%) respondents agreed with the statement. This represents a significant shift in response since 2007, when 62% disagreed with this statement and just under a quarter (23%) agreed.

Lets look at the priority people feel the Government should place on the environment compared with other issues. All respondents were asked to say what they thought were the most important issues the Government should be dealing with. This question was asked unprompted – respondents‟ spontaneous answers were coded to a list of options which were not seen by the respondent. Respondents were able to give as many answers as they liked. Table 5 below summarises responses to the question compared with responses from the 2007 Defra survey.

Perceptions of governement issues

The economy was the most frequently mentioned issue for this question with more than half (57%) of all respondents selecting this as an important issue for the Government. The proportion of respondents mentioning this as an important issue had increased very considerably from 8% in 2007. This was followed by unemployment, mentioned by 37% of respondents (up from 9% in 2007) and then the “Environment / Pollution‟, mentioned by 35% of all respondents (up from 20% in 2007).

Overall this makes the “Environment / Pollution‟ the third most frequently cited response to the question (it was the fourth in 2007), with more respondents mentioning this as an important issue for the Government than crime. It is also worth noting that the proportion of people who mentioned at least one issue related to the environment (including public transport) as being important had increased from 26% in 2007 to 41% in 2009.
It should be noted that while relatively few respondents mentioned global warming / climate change, or energy use / fuel efficiency / alternative fuels, it is probable that many respondents were thinking about these issues when they said the environment / pollution. As this question was unprompted, it is not possible to say what specific aspect of the environment respondents were thinking about.

None of the three responses given most frequently in 2007 were in the top three responses in 2009 – in 2007 they were crime (mentioned by 49% of respondents and now down to 32% in 2009), health / social services (46% down to 26% in 2009), and education (35% down to 24% in 2009).

Here at BuilderScrap.com we meet people who work for Builders Merchants and in Construction all the time…. It’s time for our own quick poll.

Readers, at the BuilderScrap.com offices we’ve been reading and are frankly astonished at peoples attitudes to Energy and climate change. We thought we’d share more of the findings

Respondents were asked to indicate which one of six statements best reflected their feelings with regard to energy use and climate change. Responses to the question are shown in Table 4 compared with findings from tracker surveys carried out by the Energy Saving Trust in 2007 and 2008.

Attitudes towards the environment and climate change

In total 85% of all respondents indicated that they thought climate change was caused by energy use (this is largely consistent with findings from the Energy Saving Trust Tracker surveys in 2008 and 2007). Just 4% specifically said they did not believe that there are climate change problems caused by energy use with 5% indicating they “didn’t know”.

Around one in ten respondents (9%) indicated that they were not willing or able to change their behaviour with regard to energy use. In this respect the findings from the current survey are very similar to those from the Energy Saving Trust Tracker surveys in 2008 and 2007 (10% expressed this same opinion both in 2008 and 2007).

A little more than a third (36%) of respondents said they thought that climate change was caused by energy use and they were doing either “quite a number of things‟ (27%) or “a lot of things‟ (9%) to reduce their energy use and emissions. This represents a significant increase since 2008 and 2007 (when respectively 19% and 20% said they were doing quite a number or a lot of things). There has also been a decrease in the proportion who said they were “beginning to think that I should do something‟ (17% in 2009 compared with 27% in 2008 and 29% in 2007).

“(9%) indicated that they were not willing or able to change their behaviour” . This attitude isn’t going to help us reduce our effect on the environment. If attitudes like this continue, we certainly will destroy our communities and undo the great work that the majority have undertaken.

Must try harder! get Recycling GB

Beliefs and attitudes towards the environment

More from the BuilderScrap.com team on environmental beliefs and attitudes. We love these posts!

Respondents were presented with a large number of belief and attitude statements and asked to indicate how strongly they agreed or disagreed with each of these (on a five-point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree). This section presents findings from responses to these statements, covering a range of beliefs about environmental issues as well as some motivations and barriers to further environmental behaviour, grouped together under three broad themes:

• Reported barriers and motivations – what motivates people to be environmentally-friendly and what are the barriers preventing people from being environmentally-friendly?

• Ecological world-view – what are people‟s views on the environment at a global level / on the way we use the Earth‟s resources?

• Persuading others – to what extent do people discuss environmental issues and try to persuade others to be environmentally-friendly?

Reported barriers and motivations

The survey included 17 statements related to what motivates people to be environmentally-friendly and what barriers prevent people from being environmentally-friendly. Table 2 provides a comparison of the proportion of respondents who agreed and disagreed with each statement between 2007 and 2009. Comparisons are available for all but two of the statements which were new in the 2009 survey

Attitudes

Agreement was highest for the following statements (which were expressed in a broadly positive way towards the environment) – more than half of all respondents agreed with each of these:

It really disappoints me when I see big offices and public buildings with their lights on when the building is empty (83% agreed, with 60% agreeing strongly)

• If government did more to tackle climate change, I‟d do more too (58% agreed, with 17% agreeing strongly)
• If business did more to tackle climate change, I would too (58% agreed, with 23% agreeing strongly)
• I sometimes feel guilty about doing things that harm the environment (55% agreed, with 13% agreeing strongly)
• I need more information on what I could do to be more environmentally friendly (55% agreed, with 13% agreeing strongly)

In contrast more than half of all respondents disagreed with each of the following statements (which were expressed in a broadly negative way towards the environment):

• It would embarrass me if my friends thought my lifestyle was purposefully environmentally friendly (74% disagreed, with 45% strongly disagreeing)
• It’s not worth me doing things to help the environment if others don’t do the same (65% disagreed, with 29% strongly disagreeing)
• The effects of climate change are too far in the future to really worry me (64% disagreed, with 30% strongly disagreeing)
• It’s only worth doing environmentally-friendly things if they save you money (61% disagreed, with 25% strongly disagreeing)
• It’s not worth Britain trying to combat climate change, because other countries will just cancel out what we do (55% disagreed, with 26% strongly disagreeing)
• I find it hard to change my habits to be more environmentally-friendly (54% disagreed, with 19% strongly disagreeing)
• Being green is an alternative lifestyle it’s not for the majority (51% disagreed, with 21% strongly disagreeing)’ve

We wonder if the respondents have ever heard of other phrases like recycling or Builders Exchange!

Knowledge of environmental terms

More from BuilderScrap.com on attitudes and knowledge of the environment. This is a continuation of the previous post comparing 2007 to 2009 in relation to environmental terms.
As in 2007, respondents were asked to indicate how much they knew, if anything about a range of environmental terms and concepts. Knowledge of other, more specific terms (including biodiversity and carbon offsetting) is dealt with later.

There had been no real change in perceived levels of knowledge between 2007 and 2009 except for the term carbon footprint. Reported knowledge of this had increased substantially since 2007 – 48% of respondents said they knew at least a fair amount about this in 2009 compared with 25% in 2007. While in 2007, 30% of respondents claimed to have never heard of it, in 2009 this had fallen to just 6%. Levels of knowledge about climate change, global warming and CO2 emissions were very similar to those reported in 2007. The majority of respondents said they knew either a lot or a fair amount about these. Very few people claimed to know nothing about these terms.

Possible conclusions from this graphic;

We’ve hit a saturation point relating to environmental reporting on Global Warming, CO2 Emissions and Climate Change . This could mean people know just about as much they care to, and aren’t being influenced anymore by those terms.

Possibly the environmental impact studies and news reporting on the subject haven’t increased over this time period. Maybe they’ve decreased.

Carbon Footprint has been promoted as a buzz term in the media, people relate more to it. It’s seen as an actionable goal (The perception is it can be altered) therefore people believe they can make a difference.

Your thoughts?

Here at BuilderScrap.com we love to find little hint’s, tips and useful information. We loved this snippet from the good people at home recycling.

Recycling office furniture

The Facts

* Up to £13 million of furniture is reused already each year
* There are many people locally, in reduced circumstances, who would welcome what you might be throwing away

REDUCE

* If you don’t need to replace then don’t

REUSE

* Give away to, and buy from charities – you’d be helping a good cause and saving a lot of hassle too
* Try selling your unwanted furniture and look around for second hand bargains

RECYCLE BASE MATERIALS

* Only recycle as one last resort before wasting
* Attempt to breakdown into separate recyclate groups

Don’t forget us at BuilderScrap.com we pride ourselves on re-use and stopping waste ending up in landfill.

Check out this fuzzy picture!

Looking through the new items listed on BuilderScrap.com this week we found a very interesting item… Executive Restrooms.

The picture has degraded as I’ve blown it up. To look at the image and description visit BuilderScrap.com Recycle

Executive Restrooms on BuilderScrap

The reason for the degrade… probably uploaded using mobile phone technology a key benefit on the BuilderScrap.com system. To find out more on uploading from mobile phone click on the hyperlink.