Home Advantage
Home is where the heart is – and it’s also where we see a whole lot of potential for tackling climate change.
According to the Climate Change Committee, 32% of the emission reductions needed between now and 2035 to meet net zero are down to the choices made by households, and 63% involves them in some way. However, Hubbub polling shows only 45% of people know which of their actions most impact climate change.
Enter: Home Advantage. A blueprint for what UK households really think of sustainable living, what stands in their way and what would help them to do more.
Giving households the Home Advantage
We brought together a group of businesses, including Barratt Redrow, B&Q, Starbucks UK, TSB, Unilever UK and VMO2 and a cohort of 175 households in autumn 2024, to help understand how best we can support UK households to create the net zero homes of the future.
Using moderated online communities, supported by interviews, polls, surveys, and a focus group, we gathered in-depth first-hand data and insight on a range of topics including home energy and heating, food and diet and the everyday stuff we buy and throw away.
Male, 45-54
So, what did we learn...
While Home Advantage was primarily a research project, households became more confident to make positive changes when armed with new knowledge and behavioural nudges.
Over half of participants became more confident in making veggie/ dishes at home, such as making simple ingredient swaps. In general households were either already doing, or were open to adopting some or all the following behaviours: reducing food waste, buying fewer clothes, shopping second hand, buying refurbished electronics, changing boiler settings, taking other small energy saving actions and slightly reducing consumption of meat and dairy.
Not only that but taking part in Home Advantage made households MORE motivated to do their bit. 65% became more willing to cut energy use by 15% and 48% became more willing to reduce meat and dairy intake by 20%.
Our findings
The good news is that overwhelmingly the households we worked with reported a sense of duty towards the environment and future generations, and despite frustration around lack of infrastructure and cost concerns, overall, most were optimistic that individual action can collectively make a difference.
75% of 501 UK homeowners said they were open to making changes to how they live in order to help cut emissions, with the right help and support from business and government.
Households often wanted reassurance that a choice or action is worth their investment of time and money. For example households were particularly motivated by actions like shopping second-hand and buying refurbished electronic devices for their children because they could ‘get a good deal’ and would save them more money than buying new.
Trust is easily lost and hard to regain, and is influenced by personal experiences and perceived integrity, often built over time. Overall trust towards politicians, institutions and businesses was low, with many highlighting concerns about hidden motives, potential biases or conflicts of interest. Household’s trusted their friends, family, those who were similar to them, and those who they had built relationships with, including tradespeople.
Positive and aspirational storytelling is needed from people across the UK to build public demand and trust, and there’s an opportunity for public engagement to tap into timely moments like home energy upgrade journeys to influence and support households with consistent, engaging, positive messages.
There is a role for communications from business, government and communities, to help create a positive narrative about the path to net zero. Choice is very important, especially for identity-linked decisions, such as eating meat and dairy and clothing choices, and messaging should focus on incremental steps and focus on the positives, not what’s missing. There’s an opportunity to build on curiosity when framing eating more vegetables and incrementally reducing meat and dairy, to drive social norming.
Households need to know how taking action will benefit them, and are relevant for their lives, because most people are not motivated by sustainability alone Households ranked their finances and health and wellbeing as being more important than living more sustainably and appreciated other benefits including feeling more in control of their lives, improved comfort, and improved self-esteem.
Our 12 recommendations to business and government
The insights from Home Advantage have helped create 12 recommendations for business and/or government. Applying the overarching principles and recommendations from this report could make huge strides towards the third of emissions reduction required by 2035 that relies on the decisions of households.
Dive into the details of these recommendations and the insights that have shaped them in the full report below:
Read the executive summary and appendix
Want to learn more?
We hope some of the findings, insight and recommendations from this report can help business, government and NGOs better support households to contribute towards net zero.
If you’d like to discuss any of the findings in this report, or work with us on the solutions, get in touch.
