1. It's not (just) “the
environment, stupid!”
Values, discourses, and routes to engagement
of people adopting lower carbon lifestyles
Dr Rachel Howell

2.  9 women, 7 men
 Age range: early 20s – 80s
 14 white, including 1 Hungarian and 1 South African; 1
Indian; 1 English Chinese
 All middle class, university educated, though some on low
incomes
 4 renters; 12 owner-occupiers
 Varied household composition
 Average interview: 1 hour 41 minutes
Purposive sampling – 16 interviewees

3. Social justice
"I think the gut thing that moves
me is people."

4. Community
"I think this has to do with
being linked into the
community."

5. Frugality
"There's no
desperation
for new
trainers."

6. Discourses
"I think that you don’t even have
to care about climate change to
want a low carbon lifestyle."

7. 'A lower carbon lifestyle'
"For me it’s more local living,
stronger communities, more time
for each other."

8. Triangulation: values
questionnaire
 Top-rated value:
social justice
 Meanalt > Meanbio
(de Groot & Steg 2007, 2008)

9. Implications?
 'Altruistic' values might be as useful as 'biospheric'
ones
 Make common cause with human rights and
development groups
 Climate change communications need to encourage
people to envision a holistic positive vision for a
lower-carbon future, not just give a 'to do' list

10. Thank you! Questions?
Rachel Howell
rah22@aber.ac.uk