Effects of feedback about community water consumption on residential water conservation

This study was designed to investigate methods of promoting water conservation through feedback about the level of water consumption in the long term. Most previous studies have been conducted in areas where water resources are under stress, whereas as this study was conducted in the Tokyo commuting area, where there is little worry about a water shortage. Three types of feedback about the level of water consumption in their community were provided to water users. These included actual mean consumption, consumption rank, and emoticons with written information. Feedback was sent once every two weeks during a 24-week period. Two hundreds and forty-six participants were randomly sampled from survey monitors in the Tokyo commuting area. The results indicated that effective feedback information differed for high and low water consumers. Water use in high consumers decreased when they received emoticons, whereas that in low consumers decreased when they saw that their use had decreased. Consumption in low water users did not increase even when they were notified that their consumption was relatively small. In addition, information about mean water consumption is only effective under conditions of water scarcity. In the future, the amount of regional water resources should be considered in selecting the survey area.