The main objective of the thesis is to seek insights into the theory, and provide empirical evidence of rebound effects. Rebound effects reduce the environmental benefits of environmental policies and household behaviour changes. In particular, win-win demand side measures, in the form of energy efficiency and household consumption pattern changes, are seen as ways for households and businesses to save money and the environment. However, these savings have environmental impacts when spent, which are known as rebound effects. This is an area that has been widely neglected by policy makers. This work extends the rebound effect literature in three important ways, (1) it incorporates the potential for variation of rebound effects with household income level, (2) it enables the isolation of direct and indirect effects for cases of energy efficient technology adoption, and examines the relationship between these two component effects, and (3) it expands the scope of rebound effect analysis to include government taxes and subsidies. MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect Using a case study approach it is found that the rebound effect from household consumption pattern changes targeted at electricity is between 5 and 10%. For consumption pattern changes with reduced vehicle fuel use, the rebound effect is in the order of 20 to 30%. Higher income households in general are found to have a lower total rebound effect; however the indirect effect becomes relatively more significant at higher household income levels. In the win-lose case of domestic photovoltaic electricity generation, it is demonstrated that negative rebound effects can occur, which can potentially amplify the environmental benefits of this action. The rebound effect from a carbon tax, which occurs due to the re-spending of raised revenues, was found to be in the range of 11-32%. Taxes and transfers between households of different income levels also have environmental implications. For example, a more progressive tax structure, with increased low income welfare payments is likely to increase greenhouse gas emissions. Subsidies aimed at encouraging environmentally friendly consumption habits are also subject to rebound effects, as they constitute a substitution of government expenditure for household expenditure. For policy makers, these findings point to the need to incorporate rebound effects in the environmental policy evaluation process.’

Energieffektiviseringar är ett verktyg för att minska energianvändningen och de miljöbelastningar den ger upphov till, men de miljömässiga vinsterna av effektiviseringar äts i många fall upp av s.k. rekyleffekter (RE). Den här studien handlar om hur dessa rekyleffekter kan förebyggas vilket skapar möjligheter för mer miljömässigt hållbara energieffektiviseringar. Arbetet första frågeställning syftade till att ge svar på om direkta RE uppstått i samband med energieffektiviseringar som gällde belysning inom företag. Om inga direkta RE av betydelse uppstått innebär det att de besparingar som gjorts blivit tillgängliga för investeringar i andra typer av konsumtion av varor och tjänster. Dessa varor och tjänster är i sin tur miljöbelastande, vilket ger upphov till s.k. indirekta RE. Arbetets andra frågeställning syftade därför till att ge svar på vad som skulle motivera företag att satsa dessa resurser på miljöförbättrande åtgärder för att dämpa dessa indirekta RE. Beräkningen av direkt RE gjordes med en "före- och efteranalys" av energianvändningen i samband med energieffektiviseringen. För att isolera vad som var direkt RE samlades också data in kring faktorer som påverkar energianvändningen som förändringar av upplyst golvyta och ljusstyrka samt installation av belysningsstyrning. För att besvara arbetets andra frågeställning gjordes en web-enkät. Studien kom att omfatta sex företag inom tillverkningsindustrin och detaljhandeln. Resultatet av beräkningen av direkt RE visar på resultat mellan 4,7 % till -72,2 % vilket innebär att ekonomiska besparingar gjorts. Resultatet visade att besparingarna i första hand användes till att förbättra företagens resultat och produktion. Företagen såg inga hinder i att investera dessa resurser i miljöförbättrande åtgärder, men dessa investeringar gjordes sällan. Faktorer med starka drivkrafter för att motivera sådana investeringar identifierades som lösningar med potential att stärkta företagens varumärke, med en tydlig koppling till företagens verksamhetsområde och miljöpolicy. Möjligheten till att få råd och utbildning för att förbättra företagens miljöprestanda var också en stark drivkraft. / Improving energy efficiency is a way to reduce energy use and the environmental strain the latter can cause, but the environmental gains of such measures are in many cases diminished by rebound effects (RE). This study is an examination of how these RE can be prevented, thereby creating opportunities for more environmentally sustainable energy efficiency improvements. The first part of this study was aimed at determining if direct RE have emerged in parallel with increased energy efficiency efforts of indoor lighting within corporations. If no direct RE of significance could be measured, the cost savings that have occurred would then be available for investment in other types of goods and services. These goods and services, in turn represent a strain on the environment, giving rise to so-called indirect RE. The second part of this study was therefore aimed at determining what would motivate corporations to invest these cost savings in environmental improvement measures to lower those indirect RE. The calculation of direct RE was done with a “before-after” analysis of energy use in connection with energy efficiency improvement. In order to isolate the direct RE, data was also gathered about factors that effect energy use, such as changes in illuminated floor area and luminosity as well as installations of automated lighting control systems. A web survey was used for the second part of this analysis. Six companies within the manufacturing and retail industries participated in this study. The calculation of direct RE yielded a result between 4.7% to -72.2%, which showed that cost savings had been made. The results also indicated that the savings were primarily used to increase the companies’ profit margins and production. The companies did not see any obstacles to invest these resources in environmental improvement measures, but these investments were rarely made. The factors identified as strong motivators for such investments were solutions with the potential to improve the companies’ brand, with a clear connection to their trade and environmental policy. The possibility to get guidance and education on how to improve environmental performance was also a strong motivator.

The concept of resource nexus is an acknowledgement of the interconnections between the uses of natural resources. This research will further the work done on the resource nexus by examining the multiple effects of measures taken in the Indian textile industry to lower the costs incurred due to the implementation of Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD). ZLD combines a variety of technologies to cease the discharge of untreated water from production processes to the surrounding area. The paper will, based on surveys answered by an IKEA supplier and four of IKEA’s sub-suppliers of textile in India, present a multiple case study of possible multiple effects of projects undertaken to lower the increased cost of manufacturing with ZLD. Building on the multiple case study, and marrying it with the knowledge of the multiple benefits of energy efficiency improvements, the Value Added Water (VAW) tool, and the rebound effect, this paper constructs and offers a Multiple Effects Framework (MEF) for measures taken in factories as a response to the increased cost of manufacturing with ZLD. The framework handles both quantifiable and non-quantifiable multiple effects of measures taken, such as changes in resource use (water, energy, chemicals, materials), productivity and work environment. The MEF aggregates a more comprehensive picture of the overall effects of measures taken to adapt to the increased costs associated with ZLD in the textile supply chain, and can to a certain extent be applied to other factories facing a future mandate for ZLD. When changed accordingly, the framework can also be applied to other situations and industries as a decision-making and evaluation tool. In order to deepen the understanding of customer expectations and future trends, interviews were made with IKEA co-workers and a consultant involved with the factories investigated. Lessons learnt by IKEA and the consultant regarding ZLD implementation and the resource nexus are presented for internalization by factories, customers and authorities.

A survey of residential solar photovoltaic (PV) adopters in Texas was administered and the results are presented and discussed. A 40% response rate was achieved and 365 complete responses were received. In addition to demographics, the survey uncovered aspects related to the decision-making process, information search, financial attractiveness of PV, and post-installation experience. Peer-effects did not have a large influence on the adoption of residential PV in Texas, but the potential for increasing the number of communication/information channels to increase the adoption rate of PV exists. Adopters experienced little uncertainty at the time of PV installation because sufficient dependable information was available during the search process. Overall, they are satisfied with PV. Contextual factors, such as income and the ability to purchase a PV system rather than lease one, influence behavior. Those who decreased electricity consumption post-adoption were more motivated to adopt by environmental concern and a general interest in energy than those who increased electricity consumption post-adoption. Those who experienced behavior changes also experienced an increase in awareness of electricity use post-adoption, while those who did not experience a behavior change reported no change in awareness post-adoption. Change in awareness of electricity use is less dependent on the attitudinal and contextual factors, such as environmental concern, motivation for adoption, age, and income, that influence consumption change. The potential for further analysis of the survey results is great and will likely yield additional conclusions about the consequences of the adoption of PV. Coupling the survey results with historical electricity bill data will yield stronger conclusions about behavior change. Surveying geographical areas outside of Texas is recommended. / text

The human society exerts its influence on the ecosystem through economic activities. While the robustness of an economy manifests through its industrial structure, human impact on nature is well represented by an economy's energy consumption patterns. Therefore, evaluating the industrial structure and unraveling its interconnection with energy consumption is crucial for achieving sustainable development. In this dissertation, I address the topic from several perspectives. First, I start with an exploratory analysis on the industrial structure itself, developing an easy measure, revealed comparative dependence (RCD), to compare regional dependence on sectors. Building on the RCD measure, I indirectly evaluate the economic resilience of U.S. states by quantifying their economic diversity. Second, I bring the measure for industrial structure into context with energy consumption patterns. RCD is used to characterize sector interactions, which are then used to explain the historical trend of regional energy consumption. I find that while the expansion of low energy intensity sectors does reduce energy use, these sectors' level of interaction with other sectors also plays a key role in determining energy use. As a third step, I investigate how regional structure affects an economy's response towards energy efficiency improvements, i.e., the economy-wide rebound effect. My regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model proves that production-side energy efficiency improvement induces moderate rebound effects, while feeding back into the industrial structure by changing sectoral production scale in different directions. I also identify sectors being able to trigger different levels of energy saving and energy rebound, and explore the mechanism for their impact propagation throughout the industrial structure. This study establishes the linkage between regional industrial structure and energy consumption from different perspectives. From the scientific perspective, it improves the fundamental understanding of how industrial structure and energy consumption are intricately connected to each other. From the policy perspective, it informs policy makers of the importance of considering sector interaction when designing energy policies, as well as the effectiveness of efficiency measures in achieving energy conservation.

The rebound effect refers to the phenomenon that energy savings from improvements in energy efficiency are lower than expected due to unintended second-order effects. Grasping specific mechanisms related to the rebound effect requires a good understanding of interactions between heterogonous agents on multiple markets. Otherwise, policies aimed at reducing energy use may render counter-expected and unforeseen consequences. In this paper, we propose a formal model, where technological change results from interactions on two markets: between consumers and producers in the market for final goods, and heterogeneous power plants in the electricity market. The analysis provides insights to the role of technological change, supply-demand coevolution, and status-driven consumption in explaining the rebound effect. The model is employed to compare effectiveness of economic policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions associated with production of consumer goods, namely: a tax on electricity and "nuclear obligations" to produce ten percent of electricity from nuclear energy. (author's abstract)

Addressing building energy use is a pressing issue for building sector decisionmakers across Europe. In Sweden, some regions have adopted a target of reducingenergy use in buildings by 50% until 2050. However, building codes currently donot support as ambitious objectives as these, and novel approaches to addressingenergy use in buildings from a regional perspective are called for. The purpose ofthis licentiate thesis was to provide a deeper understanding of most relevant issueswith regard to energy use in buildings from a broad perspective and to suggestpathways towards reaching the long-term savings objective. Current trends inbuilding sector structure and energy use point to detached houses constructed before1981 playing a key role in the energy transition, especially in the rural areas ofSweden. In the Swedish county of Dalarna, which was used as a study area in thisthesis, these houses account for almost 70% of the residential heating demand.Building energy simulations of eight sample houses from county show that there isconsiderable techno-economic potential for energy savings in these houses, but notquite enough to reach the 50% savings objective. Two case studies from ruralSweden show that savings well beyond 50% are achievable, both when access tocapital and use of high technology are granted and when they are not. However, on abroader scale both direct and indirect rebound effects will have to be expected,which calls for more refined approaches to energy savings. Furthermore, researchhas shown that the techno-economic potential is in fact never realised, not even inthe most well-designed intervention programmes, due to the inherent complexity ofhuman behaviour with respect to energy use. This is not taken account of in neithercurrent nor previous Swedish energy use legislation. Therefore an approach thatconsiders the technical prerequisites, economic aspects and the perspective of themany home owners, based on Community-Based Social Marketing methodology, issuggested as a way forward towards reaching the energy savings target.

Addressing building energy use is a pressing issue for building sector decision makers across Europe. In Sweden, some regions have adopted a target of reducing energy use in buildings by 50% until 2050. However, building codes currently do not support as ambitious objectives as these, and novel approaches to addressing energy use in buildings from a regional perspective are called for. The purpose of this licentiate thesis was to provide a deeper understanding of most relevant issues with regard to energy use in buildings from a broad perspective and to suggest pathways towards reaching the long-term savings objective. Current trends in building sector structure and energy use point to detached houses constructed before 1981 playing a key role in the energy transition, especially in the rural areas of Sweden. In the Swedish county of Dalarna, which was used as a study area in this thesis, these houses account for almost 70% of the residential heating demand. Building energy simulations of eight sample houses from county show that there is considerable techno-economic potential for energy savings in these houses, but not quite enough to reach the 50% savings objective. Two case studies from rural Sweden show that savings well beyond 50% are achievable, both when access to capital and use of high technology are granted and when they are not. However, on a broader scale both direct and indirect rebound effects will have to be expected, which calls for more refined approaches to energy savings. Furthermore, research has shown that the techno-economic potential is in fact never realised, not even in the most well-designed intervention programmes, due to the inherent complexity of human behaviour with respect to energy use. This is not taken account of in neither current nor previous Swedish energy use legislation. Therefore an approach that considers the technical prerequisites, economic aspects and the perspective of the many home owners, based on Community-Based Social Marketing methodology, is suggested as a way forward towards reaching the energy savings target.

Current projections indicate that by 2050, two in every three people will live in urban areas, and that cities will accommodate 3 billion people during this period. Cities are consuming three-quarters of the world's energy and causing three-quarters of global pollution. To reduce these impacts, new technologies have been considered in the development of smart sustainable cities, but technology has not always favoured the idea of sustainable consumption. To address this issue, we have aimed to focus on identifying the role of sustainable consumption within implementations of smart cities’ projects across Europe. We have selected a set of smart city projects in 76 cities in Europe from CONCERTO initiatives, Mapping Smart Cities in Europe, Energy Study for the Stockholm Region and Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas and classified them according to: smart governance, smart mobility, smart living, smart environment, smart citizens and smart economy. Furthermore, we established a number of categories for the classification of the evaluated projects based on their relevance to sustainable consumption, and considered several solutions for the integration of sustainable consumption in smart sustainable cities. The results show that in 18.9% of the projects, sustainable consumption is not relevant at all. The second classification shows the percentage of the remaining categories where sustainable consumption is relevant; 8.3% consider sustainable consumption as relevant even though it was not implemented in the project. These cities aim to achieve a higher level of sustainable consumption, which is expected to be included in future projects. If they keep themselves in this category, their behavioural consumption patterns will not change and the impact of citizens on the cities will remain the same. The majority of the projects, 54.2%, implemented technology to reduce consumption but if the projects do not coincide with the behaviour of citizens, a big rebound effect will occur. 37.5% of the projects consider relevant sustainable consumption to its full potential and this can change citizen’s behaviour. In conclusion, sustainable consumption is relevant in most of the projects analysed, with new technologies available to help energy savings and reduction of our consumption. However, if there is a lack of smart consumption from the citizens, the technologies available might not be sufficient and consumption could increase. One quarter of the analysed smart cities projects still do not consider the consumption behaviour of the citizens. This can be changed through campaigns and explanations targeting the population on how to manage and reduce energy and resource consumption. To reduce the negative impact of the cities’ growth, projects considering smart sustainable cities need to integrate sustainable consumption policies that account for citizens' behaviour.

In 2011 Storvreta IK installed two solar collector systems in order to reduce the club’s electricity demand for domestic hot water. However, electricity use from 2012 to 2015 shows that the expected reduction in the electricity demand has not occurred. This project investigates the solar collector systems and the heat demand of Storvreta IK’s buildings in order to explain the “failure” in electricity savings. The results of the simulations show that the heat production of the solar collectors is lower than Storvreta IK’s expectations. This could be explained by that the domestic hot water is not used as much as Storvreta IK thought and the system is therefore over-dimensioned for their need. The rebound effect could be another reason to why the electricity saving is lower than expected.