Title: Pro-environmental behaviours in improving energy performance of the Australian housing

Authors: Javad Asad Poor; David Thorpe

Addresses: Department of Architecture, Mashhad Branch-Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran; School of Civil Engineering and Surveying, Faculty of Health, Engineering, and Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, Education City, Sinnathamby Blvd, Springfield Central QLD 4300, Australia ' School of Civil Engineering and Surveying, Faculty of Health, Engineering, and Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, Sinnathamby Blvd, Springfield Central QLD 4300, Australia

Abstract: The residential sector is the main energy consumer in the Australian building sector and has significant impact on greenhouse gases emission in this country. The sector confronts a number of non-technological barriers, e.g., diversity of products and stakeholders, which detract from the leverage of mitigation plans in this area of building industry. This paper aims at explaining the application of occupants' pro-environmental behaviour in overcoming such barriers in the Australian housing industry. Accordingly, the main objectives are to explain the housing characteristics, and then to find out to what extent pro-environmental behaviour is capable of moderating the barriers. Looking at the housing characteristics is a proper source for explaining the housing preferences, which are indicators of end-users' environmental perceptions and attitudes. Conducting graphical analyses on secondary data compiled from a number of online sources by Excel software resulted in drawing graphical profiles from the Australian housing, explaining the occupants' preferences. The results showed that the occupants' preferences are strictly responsible for the current direction of housing development; hence, their environmental attitudes and perceptions should gain centrality in future planning.

Keywords: Australian housing; end-users' perceptions and preferences; energy consumption and demands; emission mitigation; pro-environmental behaviours; efficiency; Australia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2017.087247

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2017 Vol.16 No.4, pp.315 - 335

Received: 29 Jun 2016
Accepted: 05 Dec 2016
Published online: 11 Oct 2017 *

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