Household Environmental Attitudes and Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Evidence from Spanish Data

Buildings are an essential driver of current and future energy consumption and associated emissions with large energy-efficiency (EE) improvement potentials in both emerging and developed countries. Yet, especially in this sector, there are several and persistent barriers that prevent the attainment of EE gains. With a revealed-preferences approach from a 2008 national representative survey of Spanish households, we analyze some determinants of EE investment and behavior. In particular, our discrete-choice logit model empirically determines whether Spanish households that indicated to be concerned with the environment, or show eco-friendly practices, are more likely to invest in EE and to incorporate EE matters into their daily consumption decisions. Results suggest that pro-environmental attitudes indeed have positive effects on energy consumption habits and low-cost EE investments. Such findings, together with other information provided by the paper, may be useful for the design and implementation of future EE policies in this area.