Nov 24 2009
The initial results of a study on homeowners’ green behavior by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as measured from their tendencies to separate trash resulted in a spate of findings:
Based on the results obtained from 1,500 respondents, almost 83 percent of rubbish is separated by those owning individual homes and only 59 percent of the rubbish is separated by those staying in rented homes. This is so because very few households are installed with solar energy and solar water heating panels.
In comparison with the rate of car sharing, traveling by flights and preventing the purchase of heavily packed items, an initial discovery highlighted that about 82 percent of lights are switched off in unused rooms and 67 percent households completely switch off their television sets in order to save electric energy and have an eco-friendly house. Energy saving and maintaining an eco-friendly home are some of the main concerns that are taken into consideration by the state of Denmark and its citizens.
Individual efforts such as these are widely practiced in British households as such eco-friendly and energy saving measures can be easily implemented and are cost effective. A certain section of the society is of the opinion that these measures will lead to hazardous outcomes in the environment.
In relation to these indifferences an annual survey titled, ‘Understanding Society’, focuses on studying the varied attitudes and reactions of 100,000 individuals from a total of 40,000 households and the results of this survey will be published at a later period.
Nick Buck, Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), at University of Essex, has remarked that this issue related to the environment will be the most popularly discussed issue among the British Society as a result of the eagerly awaited Copenhagen Climate Change Conference that is to take place within a week or two.
Buck highlighted the fact that this survey will be helpful in analyzing the changing opinions and reactions of the same people who are surveyed every year. The information obtained from this survey will indeed project the level of participation from the public towards maintaining greener homes and thus uplifting the environment.
Source: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/