Understanding families’ motivations for sustainable behaviors

• We analyzed eco-friendly motivations for sustainable behaviors in the context of families.
• Motivations varied according to family type and their emotional needs.
• Routines, children age and parental responsibilities determined family motivations.
• Motivations reflected their emotional needs, sense of security and identity.

While interest in eco-feedback technologies has peaked over the last decade, research increasingly highlights that simply providing information to individuals regarding their consumption behaviors does not guarantee behavior change. This has lead to an increasing body of work that attempts to characterize individuals’ latent motivations that drive sustainable behaviors. With this paper we aim at expanding this body of work by analyzing such motivations in the context of families. We report findings from interviews with 15 families who used an eco-feedback interface over a period of 2 years. Our study reveals that motivations for sustainable behavior were not only rooted in individuals’ environmental concerns and need for expense management but they also regarded: (i) individuals’ and families’ need for a sense of control and security, (ii) parents’ self-perceived responsibility of their role as parents and (iii) the perception of individual as well as family identity. We argue that in order for eco-feedback technologies to attain long-lasting behavioral changes in the domestic environment they need to address basic family needs that go beyond individual ideals of pro-environmental behavior.