A range of behaviours
were rejected on the basis of perceived high cost/effort or low
return, or being non-mainstream (which offered little benefit in terms of social
approval or might even detract from it):
- Switching to solar power, recycling beyond what
the council collected and giving
up the car in favour of public transport were all resisted on the basis of effort
- Hybrid cars were seen to be too high risk/unproven
and currently for early
adopters or a minority that did not include them
- Food and environmentally friendly products were
not seen as any ‘better’ than
their mainstream equivalents (the best brand often being important)
- Higher cost was also difficult to rationalise
“We tried buying organic from Tesco but we buy everything that’s
not organic now – paying so much
money, double, made us feel terrible”
[Male, C1, 36-45, Young Family, New Build/Mkt Town, Caerphilly - BC]
- The impact of practices such as saving water was
felt to be not worth bothering
with due to the limited impact they felt could achieve
- Meters were generally disliked as they were viewed
as inconvenient and higher cost
- Purchasing second hand items was a poor fit with
their aspirations for mobility
and to be seen as ‘upwardly mobile’ and was therefore low interest
- Some were very cynical about carbon off-setting
