Living Lightly: How does Climate Change Feature in Residential Home Improvements and What are the Implications for Policy?

Ageing domestic housing stock is frequently remodelled and remade to suit homeowners' aspirations and to comply with changing expectations about the home, its appearance and function. In the context of preparing for climate change, it can be argued that significant improvements to existing stock and changes to how it is inhabited are required to improve the environmental performance of residential dwellings. Yet home improvement, environmental performance and household practice rarely occur together in social enquiry. Drawing on Hobson's framing of the ‘rationalisation discourse of sustainable consumption’ we explore the assumed links between homeowners' concerns for the environment, home improvement consumption and household practice. Amongst other findings, we demonstrate that although there is some association amongst these elements, the links are weak. To achieve real change towards climate change mitigation we suggest future policy and programs need to look beyond such simple causal links between attitudes and behaviour and draw on a deeper understanding of the social practices and associated systems of provision implicated in daily life.