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1. A household-scale life cycle assessment model for understanding the food-energy-water nexus

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1059301  

   Daignault, Jessica; Wallace, Charles; Watkins, David; Handler, Robert; Yang, Yi; Heaney, Danielle; Ahamed, Sonya (February 2023, Frontiers in Environmental Science)

   Vörösmarty, C. (Ed.)

   The household is an important locus of decision-making regarding food, energy, and water (FEW) consumption. Changes in household FEW consumption behaviors can lead to significant reductions in environmental impacts, but it can be difficult for consumers to compare the relative impacts of their consumption quantitatively, or to recognize the indirect impacts of their household consumption patterns. We describe two novel tools designed to address this problem: A hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) framework to translate household consumption of food, energy, and water into key environmental impacts including greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, and water use; and a novel software application calledHomeTrackerthat implements the framework by collecting household FEW data and providing environmental impact feedback to households. We explore the question:How can a life cycle assessment-based software application facilitate collection and translation of household consumption data to meaningful environmental impact metrics?A case study in Lake County, Illinois is presented to illustrate use of theHomeTrackerapplication. Output data describing environmental impacts attributable to household FEW consumption in the study area are shown in order to illustrate key features and trends observed in the case study population. The framework and its associated output data can be used to support experimental research at the household scale, allowing for examination of what users purchase and consume over an extended period of time as well as increased understanding of household behavior trends and environmental impacts, and as future work. 

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2. Supporting Interventions to Reduce Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Transdisciplinary Role-Playing Game Development

   https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878119848135  

   Agusdinata, Datu Buyung; Lukosch, Heide (May 2019, Simulation & Gaming)

   Background. Designing interventions for conserving the food, energy, and water nexus at household level poses a significant challenge due to the complex interplay between human behaviors, technologies, and policies. Games show potential to increase awareness for environmental issues and influence behaviors towards more sustainable practices. Aim. By bringing together scientists and practitioners in the game design process, a transdisciplinary (TD) approach is seen as a promising way to integrate available knowledge and establish ownership of the problem and solution options. Few gaming literature, however, looked at combining the two approaches in addressing resource conservation issues. Method. We present a systematic account of the TD approach process of developing a role-playing game (RPG) - called HomeRUN (Role-play for Understanding Nexus). Results. We documented our experiences in terms of challenges as well as the benefits of the TD approach. Interacting disciplines in this process include psychology, economics, engineering, climate, sociology, and computer science. Inputs from each discipline combined with feedback from social actors that include city government, utility companies, and community members facilitated continuous improvements of the RPG design. 

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3. Perspectives on water resources among Native and non-Native residents of the Great Lakes Region

   Kozich, A.; Halvorsen, K.E.; Mayer, A.S. (April 2018, Journal of contemporary water research and education)

   Abstract: Climate change and human population growth could reduce household water availability in the historically water-rich Great Lakes region. It is critical to understand human-water relationships in advance of policy actions that could result from reduced water supplies. Research on household water conservation typically occurs in a reactionary nature, in settings that are already water-stressed. Furthermore, few studies involve Native American perspectives on this important topic. We used semi-structured interviews to assess residents’ perspectives of Great Lakes water resources and views on household conservation, involving distinct samples of Native American and non-Native residents. Although interviewees deeply value the region’s water resources, few practice household conservation or plan to do so in the future. Few perceive others in the region as conserving water. Beliefs about water-related problems are focused more on water quality than supply. Native American interviewees expressed deeper spiritual values toward water than non-Native interviewees. Findings can help inform policy and outreach strategies and provide a rich foundation for follow-up quantitative research testing the Theory of Planned Behavior’s ability to explain household conservation intentions in the Great Lakes region. 

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4. Becoming FEW Conscious: A Conceptual Typology of Household Behavior Change Interventions Targeting the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus

   https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185034  

   Berman, Holly; Shwom, Rachael; Cuite, Cara (September 2019, Sustainability)

   The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus presents an opportunity to rethink predominant approaches to household behavior change science. We linked emerging FEW nexus research with existing literature examining household consumption and pro-environmental behaviors. While a large body of work examines the environmental impacts of household life and explores pathways to behavior change for sustainability, the literature lacks studies that test interventions in multiple FEW resource categories, leaving researchers unable to identify tensions and tradeoffs in the household system. To guide this developing field and accumulate findings on household behavior across disciplines, we proposed a conceptual typology that synthesizes interdisciplinary analytic traditions to classify behavioral interventions targeting the household FEW nexus. The typology synthesizes behavioral interventions as active, passive, or structural, and household-specific or non-specific, illustrating six distinct categories: information, tailored information, action, gamification, policy/price change, and material/technology provision. A review of 40 studies that guided the typology identifies four significant lessons for future intervention research: household non-specific information and tailored information work better together, feedback is more effective when it is persistent, price-based interventions (information or incentives) are often ineffective, and material/technology provision is very effective but utilized in few household studies. To push forward household resource consumption science, we advocated for a holistic nexus focus that is rooted in interdisciplinarity, coalition building with stakeholders, and data reporting that facilitates knowledge accumulation. 

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5. Predicting the spatial variation in cost-efficiency for agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation programs in the U.S.

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-024-00252-6  

   Cameron-Harp, Micah V.; Hendricks, Nathan P.; Potter, Nicholas A. (February 2024, Carbon Balance and Management)

   Abstract BackgroundTwo major factors that determine the efficiency of programs designed to mitigate greenhouse gases by encouraging voluntary changes in U.S. agricultural land management are the effect of land use changes on producers’ profitability and the net sequestration those changes create. In this work, we investigate how the interaction of these factors produces spatial heterogeneity in the cost-efficiency of voluntary programs incentivizing tillage reduction and cover-cropping practices. We map county-level predicted rates of adoption for each practice with the greenhouse gas mitigation or carbon sequestration benefits expected from their use. Then, we use these bivariate maps to describe how the cost efficiency of agricultural mitigation efforts is likely to vary spatially in the United States. ResultsOur results suggest the combination of high adoption rates and large reductions in net emissions make reduced tillage programs most cost efficient in the Chesapeake Bay watershed or the Upper Mississippi and Lower Missouri sub-basins of the Mississippi River. For programs aiming to reduce net emissions by incentivizing cover-cropping, we expect cost-efficiency to be greatest in the areas near the main stem of the Mississippi River within its Middle and Lower sections. ConclusionsMany voluntary agricultural conservation programs offer the same incentives across the United States. Yet spatial variation in profitability and efficacy of conservation practices suggest that these uniform approaches are not cost-effective. Spatial targeting of voluntary agricultural conservation programs has the potential to increase the cost-efficiency of these programs due to regional heterogeneity in the profitability and greenhouse gas mitigation benefits of agricultural land management practices across the continental United States. We illustrate how predicted rates of adoption and greenhouse gas sequestration might be used to target regions where efforts to incentivize cover-cropping and reductions in tillage are most likely to be cost -effective. 

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