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This study aims to investigate the individual's experience of conscious consumption reduction in relation to society's consumption norms. By not focusing on motives or causes behind the change, but instead illustrating the subjective and social consequences, the study provides a deeper understanding of how the individual's self-perception and social relationships are affected. This will be studied based on the following questions “How does a conscious reduction in consumption affect the individual's self-perception and identity in relation to society's consumption norms?” and “What social and cultural effects do individuals experience when they reduce their consumption on purpose, and how does this affect relationships within the individual's immediate circle?” Previous research has been interested in understanding why individuals change their consumption behaviour. Social resistance from society and the surrounding community has also been a broad area of research. A significant focus has also been to study consumption patterns from a sustainability perspective, where research identifies challenges and how today's society can be treated. This study aims to contribute with an in-depth understanding of how conscious consumption reduction affects the individual's life aspects and relationships, which may have far-reaching implications for our understanding of society's changing consumption patterns. The theoretical framework of the study consists of Emilé Durkheim's social coercion consisting of the normative coercion, the cultural coercion, the material coercion and the structural coercion. In combination with this, Robert K. Merton's social tensions, taken from his strain theory, are also applied. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews, where we study 8 individuals' perceived effects of consumption reductions. The results suggest that a reduction in consumption strengthens the individual's empowerment and promotes self-reflection. Through reduced emphasis on external factors, individuals shape their self-perception beyond materialism. Even though their consumption reduction violates norms, they are met with curiosity. These individuals appear to act as agents of normative change by raising awareness of the impact of consumption and promoting a transformation towards a more sustainable way of living. / Denna studie ämnar undersöka individens upplevelse av medveten konsumtionsminskning i förhållande till samhällets konsumtionsnormer. Genom att inte rikta in sig på motiv eller orsaker bakom förändringen, utan i stället åskådliggöra de subjektiva och sociala konsekvenserna, ger studien en djupare förståelse för hur individens självuppfattning och sociala relationer påverkas. Detta kommer studeras utifrån frågeställningarna ”Hur påverkar en medveten minskning av konsumtion individens självuppfattning och identitet i förhållande till samhällets konsumtionsnormer?” och “Vilka sociala och kulturella effekter upplever individer som minskar sin konsumtion med avsikt, och hur påverkar detta relationer inom individens närmaste krets?” Tidigare forskning har intresserat sig för att förstå varför individer ändrar sitt konsumtionsbeteende. Även det sociala motståndet från samhälle och omgivning har varit ett vida forskningsområde. Ett betydande fokus har även varit att studera konsumtionsmönster ur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv, där forskningen identifierar utmaningar och hur dagens samhälle. Denna studie avser bidra med en ingående förståelse för hur medveten konsumtionsminskning påverkar individens livsaspekter och relationer, vilket kan ha långtgående implikationer för vår förståelse av samhällets föränderliga konsumtionsmönster. Studiens teoretiska ramverk består av Emilé Durkheims sociala tvång bestående av det normativa tvånget, det kulturella tvånget, det materiella tvånget och det strukturella tvånget. I kombination med detta tillämpas även Robert K Mertons samhälleliga spänningar, taget från hans strainteori. Studien baseras på kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer, där vi studerar 8 individers upplevda effekter av konsumtionsminskningar. Resultatet tyder på att en minskning av konsumtion stärker individens egenmakt och främjar självreflektion. Genom minskad betoning på yttre faktorer, formar individer sin självuppfattning bortom materialism. Trots att deras konsumtionsminskning bryter mot normer, möts de av nyfikenhet. Dessa individer tycks agera som agenter för normativ förändring genom att öka medvetenheten om konsumtionens påverkan och främjar en omvandling mot ett mer hållbart levnadssätt.

Whether it is based on current emissions data or future projections of further growth, the building sector currently represent the largest and singular most important contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. This notion is also supported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change based on projection scenarios for 2030 that emissions from buildings will be responsible for about one-third of total global emissions. As such, improving the energy efficiency of buildings has become a top priority worldwide. A significant majority of buildings that exist now will still exist in 2030 and beyond; therefore the greatest energy savings and carbon footprint reductions can be made through retrofit of existing buildings. A wide range of retrofit options are readily available, but methods to identify optimal solutions for a particular abatement project still constitute a major technical challenge. Investments in building energy retrofit technologies usually involve decision-making processes targeted at reducing operational energy consumption and maintenance bills. For this reason, retrofit decisions by building stakeholders are typically driven by financial considerations. However, recent trends towards environmentally conscious and resource-efficient design and retrofit have focused on the environmental merits of these options, emphasising a lifecycle approach to emissions reduction. Retrofit options available for energy savings have different performance characteristics and building stakeholders are required to establish an optimal solution, where competing objectives such as financial costs, energy consumption and environmental performance are taken into account. These key performance parameters cannot be easily quantified and compared by building stakeholders since they lack the resources to perform an effective decision analysis. In part, this is due to the inadequacy of existing methods to assess and compare performance indicators. Current methods to quantify these parameters are considered in isolation when making decisions about energy conservation in buildings. To effectively manage the reduction of lifecycle environmental impacts, it is necessary to link financial cost with both operational and embodied emissions. This thesis presents a novel deterministic decision support system (DSS) for the evaluation of economically and environmentally optimal retrofit of non-domestic buildings. The DSS integrates the key variables of economic and net environmental benefits to produce optimal decisions. These variables are used within an optimisation scheme that consists of integrated modules for data input, sensitivity analysis and takes into account the use of a set of retrofit options that satisfies a range of criteria (environmental, demand, cost and resource constraints); hierarchical course of action; and the evaluations of ‘best’ case scenario based on marginal abatement cost methods and Pareto optimisation. The steps involved in the system development are presented and its usefulness is evaluated using case study applications. The results of the applications are analysed and presented, verifying the feasibility of the DSS, whilst encouraging further improvements and extensions. The usefulness of the DSS as a tool for policy formulation and developments that can trigger innovations in retrofit product development processes and sustainable business models are also discussed. The methodology developed provides stakeholders with an efficient and reliable decision process that is informed by both environmental and financial considerations. Overall, the development of the DSS which takes a whole-life CO2 emission accounting framework and an economic assessment view-point, successfully demonstrates how value is delivered across different parts of the techno-economic system, especially as it pertains to financial gains, embodied and operational emissions reduction potential.