Reduce Your Juice: Assisting Low-income Households to Better Manage Their Energy Use
Low Income Energy Efficiency Program 2013 – 2015
Reduce Your Juice is an Australian-first program helping low-income households save money on their energy bills. It transforms the traditional approach to energy efficiency into a fun, interactive experience that helps change household energy habits.
Reduce Your Juice began as a trial program led by CitySmart and QUT. It received funding from the Australian Government to trial new and innovative approaches to energy saving to inform future policy. During 2015, two rounds of Reduce Your Juice took place with a small group of low-income participants aged 18-35, who were renting in Brisbane, Logan, Moreton Bay or Redlands council areas. Over 600 participants completed the 8-week program, making it through all the tasks and challenges to unlock a major reward at the end.
The challenge was to help young, low-income renters save money on their electricity bills by improving their energy efficiency behaviour. To solve this challenge, CitySmart, QUT and their partners developed Reduce Your Juice – a unique behaviour-change program, combining gamified elements with a digital approach to help participants implement simple ideas to save money on their electricity bills.
The Reduce Your Juice experience is designed with the user at heart – making every interaction easy and using elements of fun and entertainment to motivate learning and facilitate change. It reimagines traditional energy efficiency content into a fun, interactive experience that is delivered in “bite-sized” portions to suits today’s always-connected, mobile consumer.
Team
- Professor Marcus Foth
- Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett, Business School
- Assoc. Prof. Daniel Johnson, Science and Engineering Faculty
- Dr Rory Mulcahy, Business School
- Heather Hill
- Heather McKinnon
- Alireza Rezaeian
Partners
