And, gradually… even though it was first just meant to help them work together, they realized that the model could help them understand why people behaved the ways they did, and how to help change behaviour
Firstly … they applied it to households’ heating behaviours
Secondly… they applied it to all energy behaviour in households
Thirdly… they found that they could identify several clusters of quite distinctive ‘energy cultures’ across NZ households
And then… they used the model to help understand why timber firms used different drying technologies
And now … they are using the model to help understand how transport systems are changing, and to understand the energy cultures of SMEs, and to compare NZ’s energy culture to other countries
And, to their surprise… people all over the world thought the model was really helpful, and they had many invitations to talk about it, and other people wanting to apply it in other situations
And so… the Energy Cultures Framework became quite well known as a new way of thinking about behaviour and change, and the Energy Cultures team grew to include many more disciplines. Now the team is working with other people in NZ and internationally to test and apply the model in different contexts. Watch this space to see what happens next!