Get rid of the eco-button! Design interventions to steer sustainable use of washing machines

To reduce energy consumption of households, many appliances contain eco-settings, which when used, reduce energy consumption. However, the effectivity of the eco-settings in reducing energy consumption is hardly tested. Other design for sustainable behaviour strategies like coercion and feedback might be more effective. To test the...

Comparing the Recommendations of Buyers of Energy-Efficient and Inefficient Vacuum Cleaners

Although environmental awareness is increasing every year, and most people say they prefer to buy more sustainable products, many still do not act on their promise at the cash counter. Sustainable products are often still perceived to have lower quality or reduced performance. Recom- mendations of sustainable buyers might reduce this perceived...

Consumer buying behaviour of sustainable vacuum cleaners: Consequences for design and marketing

Although most people claim to prefer a more sustainable product, only a limited number of ‘green buyers’ act on their words at the moment of purchase. To find out how to get mainstream buyers to buy more sustainable products, we used data on 950 Western European buyers of 32 different vacuum cleaner models. The issue was why three out of four...