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Fewer showers to help global warming?

Print | Comments () Posted by Beth Daley April 13, 2009 10:45 AM

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By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

A social science experiment at the University of Rhode Island has had an unanticipated result: Students won’t shorten the length of hot showers to help global warming – but they will shower less often.

It’s unclear if their fellow students will thank them for the sacrifice.

Officials at the Kingston, R.I. campus set out to see if they could change student behavior around some of the most common and wasteful energy habits on campus – leaving computers on when not in use, keeping the heat and/or air conditioners on when they leave a room and taking excessively long showers. The semester-longer behavior modification program is one of the first of its kind campaigns on a U.S. college campus.

Overall, it worked. Only 18 percent of students surveyed before the campaign said they turned off computers when not in use – most left them on for an average of 16 hours per day. But after the campaign, which included pledging to reduce energy consumption and posting reminders in dorms, 35 percent turned off the computers.

Meanwhile, the rate of students who turned off their heat and air conditioning when leaving the room increased from 45 to 65 percent and those who “hibernate” their computer after use went from 62 to 75 percent.

But it was behavior around showers that really took researchers by surprise. Based on an initial survey, URI students took showers that lasted an average of 13 minutes each. After the first semester, shower length remained virtually unchanged but students reduced the number they took from 8 to 6.8.

“Shower length is the most difficult behavior to change; it seems to be ingrained in people as a right,” said Scott Finlinson, the coordinator of the project for NORESCO, the energy services company hired by the University. “…while men tend to be willing to reduce the length of their showers, women say that they have too much to do in the shower to cut back on the time spent there.”

The end result with less frequent showers is still impressive: Students cut back the time they spend under the nozzle by 13 minutes a week.

I wrote about the beginning of this effort here.
It’s interesting stuff. The college is now launching a more aggressive effort to target faculty and staff, in part by designating peer leaders to lead by example.