Comparative Analysis of Global Consumer Behaviour in the Context of Different Manual Dishwashing Methods
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International Journal of Consumer Studies ISSN 1470-6423 Comparative analysis of global consumer behaviour in the context of different manual dishwashing methodsijcs_1051 1..13 Petra Berkholz, Verena Kobersky and Rainer Stamminger Bonn University, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Household and Appliance Technology Section, Bonn, Germany Keywords Abstract Consumer behaviour, resource consumption, manual washing up, automatic dishwashing, This laboratory study presents an overview of the global manual dishwashing behaviour. household appliances, household technology. The focus of the investigation was to analyse individual attitudes towards manual dish- washing and to determine the amount of water and energy used, as well as the cleaning Correspondence performance achieved. Additionally, manual dishwashing was compared with automatic Rainer Stamminger, Institute of Agricultural dishwashers. Two hundred eighty-nine participants from 29 countries took part in this Engineering, Household and Appliance investigation. Each consumer had to wash up a complete soiled dishwasher load consisting Technology Section, Nussallee 5, 53115 of 12 place settings based on both international and local performance test standards for Bonn, Germany. automatic dishwashers. Country-specific aspects such as tableware, food residues or E-mail: [email protected] washing up equipment were considered. In order to analyse individual consumer’s behav- iour, each participant was recorded on video and had to fill out a questionnaire. The doi: 10.1111/j.1470-6431.2011.01051.x resource consumption for washing up dishes was measured during the tests. At the end of each trial, the cleaning result of the washed up tableware was assessed. To compare manual with automatic dishwashing, country-specific dishwasher models were tested in parallel with three different programmes with the same soiled dish samples. The study provides comprehensive data about the average resource consumption for manual dishwashing for a specific load for each country. The average water consumption per country reached 34.7 l up to 160.1 l, and individual values ranged from 18.3 l to 472.8 l. The lowest used average heat quantity accounted for 0.9 kWh per country, while the highest amount was five times higher. The cleaning results did not differ much between the countries: the average test results were between 2.2 and 2.8 on a scale between 0 and 5. The automatic dishwasher tests showed differences between both the machines and the programmes. All machines achieved lower water consumption values than the average consumers with about 9.6 l to 26.7 l of water on average. The energy consumption ranged from 0.5 kWh on average up to 2.0 kWh. The cleaning results of the dishwasher tests varied highly ranging from 1.1 in a quick programme to 4.4 in an intensive programme. The study comes to the conclusion that automatic dishwashing is more superior as compared with manual dishwashing in terms of performance and resource consumption under the tested conditions. Furthermore, it points out that washing up dishes under running tap water is the most water-consuming manual dishwashing method of all investigated ones. A high lack of knowledge about the benefits of automatic dishwashing compared with manual dishwashing can still be identi- fied among consumers. Introduction discussions was a definition of the term sustainable development, summarized 1987 in ‘Our Common Future’, better known as the Sustainability and sustainable development are both terms that Brundtland Report (United Nations, 1987). Two main definitions have been given various meanings by politicians, socialists, econo- of sustainability are named within this document: mists and ecologists in the past decades. Early discussions about 1 ‘Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and aspira- the concept of sustainable development were phrased back in the tions of the present without compromising the ability to meet those 1960s during a UNESCO Conference (International Institute for of the future’ (United Nations, 1987, p. 51). Sustainable Development, 2002). Over the years, publications, 2 ‘In essence, sustainable development is a process of change in research findings and global conferences made up the concept of which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, sustainability as the focus of their interest. An outcome of all these the orientation of technological development, and institutional International Journal of Consumer Studies 1 © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Analysis of global manual dishwashing methods P. Berkholz et al. change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future European investigation was only based on a limited number of potential to meet human needs and aspirations’ (United Nations, participants, Berkholz et al. (2010) replicated the study by choos- 1987, p. 57). ing a larger and fully representative sample of UK participants. In But in the background of the increasing effect of climate change addition, each study compared the hand wash results with those of and global warming, all political efforts that have been made until an automatic dishwasher tested under the same conditions. Both today do not seem to be enough. At present, the decrease of studies were conducted in a laboratory under consumer relevant non-renewable resources makes it necessary to rethink about test conditions. In contrast to that, Richter (2010) investigated 200 energy and water demand behaviour not only in the domestic households in four European countries to identify the washing up sector. Both the world population and also the demand for behaviour under real-live conditions. The analyses of Vivian et al. resources are continually growing (United Nations, 2005). (2011) focused on the energy and the associated carbon dioxide Already today, one of the largest energy users in the European equivalent emission from both washing up dishes by hand and Union is the domestic household sector due to its increasing using an automatic dishwasher. Additionally, the consumer behav- demand for heating and appliances (European Environment iour was also taken into account in the assessment. All studies Agency, 2005). Future prospects expect, that especially in the came to the conclusion that on average, a dishwasher needs con- developed countries, consumers will be even more dependent on siderably less water and energy and reaches on average better appliances due to lifestyle changes and the increasing desire for cleaning results when used efficiently compared with hand wash. technology and comfort. Furthermore, a trend towards smaller Because these studies were only limited to some European coun- household sizes can be identified. Simultaneously, the number of tries, the need of future investigations was given to include also single households is increasing as well (European Environment habits and attitudes of consumers in non-European countries. Agency, 2005; European Commission, 2008). Future prospects indicate for Europe that the household energy demand will rise by 12% until 2030 (European Commission, 2008). Due to these Research question developments, the household appliance industry – especially for Published research have already investigated washing up habits those of white goods – has made a step forward to encourage both under laboratory and real-life conditions. But their focus was consumers to act in a more sustainable way by implementing limited to consumers living in Europe, where living conditions do energy labels. Less efficient appliances disappeared from the not differ that much between countries. In order to get a deeper market, because consumers demanded machines with higher effi- insight into washing up habits and resource consumption for ciency classes (Presutto et al., 2007). manual dishwashing outside the European Union, the main aim of When looking at the market saturation of household appliances the present investigation should be to broaden the existing Euro- on a global base, inhomogeneous distribution can be identified even pean studies by including also non-European countries into the for the higher developed countries. Taking dishwashing as an focus of research. Thereby, a better understanding of worldwide example, automatic dishwashers show an increasing market manual dishwashing practices and consumer insights are given share in Germany and the United States during the last decades which could be used to develop recommendations for best prac- (US Energy Information Administration, 2001; Zentralverband tices in the future. Participants of several representative states Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e.V., 2011), because the from all continents were chosen to take part in the study. Tests usage of this household appliance is common in both countries for were performed in Germany and abroad. The analysis of consumer decades. But there are still countries with a low market saturation of behaviour should be researched, on the one hand, by measuring automatic dishwashers, where these appliances almost have a status energy and water consumption data as well as the cleaning result. of luxury goods (Grady, 2004). Different lifestyles, traditions and On the other hand, washing up techniques and habits should be needs, but also high purchasing costs, can be assumed as reasons for identified within a non-participant observation and a question- this market development. It indicates that in these countries, a lot of naire. Based on this, it should be researched if similar results like different