Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for UK households

The Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group (SLRG) is a multi-centre research network collaborating to further understanding of the opportunities and constraints on sustainable living in the UK. The SLRG is coordinated from the University of Surrey, and brings together project teams from Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) and Departments of Sociology and Psychology. It also includes teams at other internationally acclaimed research centres: the SLRG and SPRG aim to document and analyse the complex links between lifestyles, consumption, everyday practices, values and the transition to sustainable ways of life. While SPRG focuses on particular consumption practices and technologies, SLRG's projects examine the lifestyles of households and communities and model the implications of consumption choices and values. The working papers in this series reflect the outputs, findings and recommendations emerging from a truly inter-disciplinary research programme arranged around four thematic research strands: Moments of transition: in-depth quantitative and qualitative research with households to understand the values, attitudes and habits informing their lifestyles, and to assess the impact of moments of major change-moving house, the arrival of the first child, and retirement-on habits and aspirations. Community and lifestyle change: studies of sustainable lifestyle change and innovations at the level of communities, focusing on remote rural localities in Scotland and on civil society initiatives for food growing and local resilience in England. Economic modelling of lifestyle change: studies focusing on the size and nature of rebound effects in energy use that could reduce or cancel out the gains from energy efficiency advances; and on the price responsiveness of consumption in relation to energy and sustainably produced foodstuffs. Synthesis of research and implications for policy : workshops and papers seeking to integrate findings and concepts across the suite of SLRG and SPRG projects; and research into the relationship of research evidence on sustainable living to policy development. The views expressed in this document are those of the authors and not of the SLRG, ESRC, Defra, The Scottish Government or the University of Surrey. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the authors and the publishers cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials. This publication and its contents may be reproduced as long as the reference source is cited. Abstract Energy efficiency improvements by households lead to rebound effects that offset the potential energy and emissions savings. Direct rebound effects result from increased demand for cheaper energy services, …