A methodological framework to motivate and assess behavioral change: Insights into an interdisciplinary user awareness campaign

Raising awareness among building occupants on how their behavior, comfort crite-ria settings, and lifestyles affect building energy use has become a central topic of inno-vative energy efficiency strategies. Indeed, reaching European energy efficiency goals does not only require the optimization of building design and features, but also necessi-tates the real energy consumers to be more aware of their energy-related interactions with the building. However, motivating occupants to change their behavior can become a challenging task. It is essential to provide novel, stimulating, and easily understandable information that help triggering a more energy-friendly behavior on a daily basis. Another challenge is to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of human-centered interventions. In this con-text, this paper presents an interdisciplinary methodological framework developed within an European project (H2020-MOtivating end-users Behavioral change by combined ICT based modular Information on energy use, indoor environment, health and lifestyle), de-signed to raise user awareness, reduce energy consumptions and improve health and IEQ conditions by providing combined feedback on energy, indoor environmental quality, and health. This paper identifies methodological steps designed to evaluate the outcomes, pro-cess and impacts of an interdisciplinary user-centered engagement campaign, including the application of Cost-Benefit Analysis in assessing co-benefits related to behavioral changes.