Achieving sustainable consumption of energy is an important issue due to the increasing demand for energy and its environmental impact. One of the biggest consumers of the global energy production is the residential sector. Factors determining pattern of energy consumption in this sector are firstly, characteristics of the buildings and equipment and appliances which are used inside them and secondly, people who are using the buildings. The former could be approached by using efficiency strategies; i.e. designing and using materials and utilities which are low energy demanding or reducing consumption of energy. The latter could be reached by adoption of demand side management strategies which could improve pattern of energy consumption by the end users. Combining these strategies bring out energy-smart buildings with energy-smart people as the users. This project aims at introducing potential approaches to strategies of promoting sustainable behavior regarding energy consumption in individuals, with the focus on the students of Linköping University living in the properties of housing company of the city, Studentbostäder. For fulfilling this purpose, literature review has been done for finding influencing factors on and strategies for shaping of pro-environmental behavior. In the next step, two projects with focus on demand side management for changing energy consumption of individuals have been studied. Afterward, a questionnaire based on the results of the literature review was prepared and used to gain an understanding of first: attitude, values, knowledge, and awareness of students of Linköping University regarding environmental issues, and second: point of view of the students toward the strategies for shaping pro-environmental behavior. Results of the above mentioned methods were used for identifying characteristics of a demand side management project based on provision of feedback on energy consumption for the users. It has been proposed that designing and implementing such project has the potential of affecting pattern of energy consumption by people and lead to its reduction, especially among students accommodating at housing company of city of Linköping, Studentbostäder. More studies are needed for finding feasibility of implementing such project.

Sustainable consumption is used to describe consumer behaviors which aim to reduce environmental impact. One way of measuring sustainable consumption is by tracking products’ carbon footprint. Today however, there is limited research on how carbon footprint information is influencing consumers online, and few online tools which allow consumers to track carbon footprints for specific products before the point of purchase. The purpose of the thesis is to design a sustainability tool which contains product level carbon footprint information as well as to test and evaluate how the information affects sustainable consumption. Theory from the fields of Human Computer Interaction and Carbon Footprint research was used in a multi-method qualitative study. Expert interviews and qualitative usability tests were conducted during the thesis as means of collecting empirical data. The study concludes that carbon footprint information should be introduced in the search phase of the consumer journey. The information should then progressively become more detailed as the consumer approaches the point of purchase. The study found that displaying carbon footprint information affects sustainable consumption positively in the tested online environment. However, personal preference and cost constitute a large part of consumers' choices as well. The study extends the research on carbon footprints by including results from an online environment. Future research should be conducted using quantitative methods to validate the results of this study on larger samples. Other product categories should also be tested as a way of investigating if the same consumption patterns emerge across different product categories. / Hållbar konsumtion används för att beskriva konsumentbeteenden med syfte att minska miljöpåverkan. Ett sätt att mäta hållbar konsumtion är genom att spåra produkters koldioxidavtryck. I dag är dock forskningen kring hur koldioxidavtrycksinformation påverkar konsumenter online begränsad, och få verktyg tillåter konsumenter att spårasina koldioxidavtryck för specifika produkter innan köp. Syftet med studien är att designa ett hållbarhetsverktyg med information om koldioxidavtryck på produktnivå samt att testa och utvärdera hur informationen påverkar hållbar konsumtion. Teori från områdena Människa-datorinteraktion samt Koldioxidavtrycksforskning användes i en kvalitativ multimetodstudie. Expertintervjuer samt kvalitativa användbarhetstester genomfördes under studien som ett sätt att samla in empirisk data. Slutsatsen från studien visar att information om koldioxidavtryck bör introduceras i sökfasen av konsumentresan. Koldioxidinformationen bör sedan successivt bli mer detaljerad när konsumenten närmar sig köptillfället. Studien påvisar att koldioxidavtrycksinformation påverkar hållbar konsumtion positivt i den testade onlinemiljön. Dock påverkar även personlig preferens samt kostnad konsumenternasval. Studien utökar forskningen om koldioxidavtryck genom att inkludera resultat från en onlinemiljö. Framtida forskning bör utföras med hjälp av kvantitativa metoder för att validera resultaten av denna studie på en större urvalsgrupp. Även andra produktkategorier bör testas som ett sätt att undersöka om samma konsumtionsmönster uppstår över olika produktkategorier.