Measuring the Impacts of Behavior Change Programs: Filling in the Blanks

Protocols for evaluating measure-based energy efficiency programs are well designed, documented, and generally agreed upon in the industry. However, although ACEEE and other organizations have estimated high potential energy savings from behavior modification programs, work on evaluation of behavioral programs is far from mature. This paper has two main objectives: presenting recommendations for best practices in behavior change measurement based on a review of the literature, and 2) providing, as an example, a detailed hands-on case study measuring behavior impact. In today’s energy efficiency marketplace, the number interventions that are strictly measure based is declining. While it is true that some interventions may have little-to-no interaction with behavior, most programs have some behavioral component, through use, O&M, or influences. Program managers are increasingly considering purely behavioral (e.g. social marketing) interventions – or various shades of behavioral-plus-measure interventions. The authors discuss the state of current practices in experimental design and evaluation techniques for behavioral programs – pulling lessons from public health, social marketing, sustainability, energy and other fields – and present recommended protocols for behavioral programs developed from recent projects. We provide a number of hands-on evaluation examples from the energy literature– including recent work by the authors – and show application of the techniques in the real world. We address behavior retention, persistence, impacts compared to other approaches, and what is currently under-valued in behavior evaluation.