COVER PAGE Patterns of Water The water related practices of households in southern England, and their influence on water consumption and demand management Final report of the ARCC-Water/ SPRG Patterns of Water projects March 2013 Martin Pullinger Alison Browne Ben Anderson Will Medd Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................i Executive summary ............................................................................................. ii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 A practice based approach to distributed demand .......................................................... 1 1.2 An outline of the conceptual approach adopted for the questionnaire .......................... 4 2 Research questions, aims and objectives ................................................... 6 2.1 Research questions ........................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Variants of practice ........................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Household water use ...................................................................................................... 10 3 Methods .................................................................................................. 12 3.1 Quantitative data collection ........................................................................................... 12 3.1.1 Sample design ................................................................................................................... 12 3.1.2 Address, household and respondent selection ................................................................ 13 3.1.3 Fieldwork pilot and data collection fieldwork pilot .......................................................... 14 3.1.4 Survey questions ............................................................................................................... 14 3.1.5 Sensitive data and data linkage ........................................................................................ 14 3.1.6 Weights ............................................................................................................................. 15 3.1.7 Response rates .................................................................................................................. 15 3.2 Qualitative interviews ..................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Data analysis ................................................................................................................... 17 3.3.1 Cluster analysis ................................................................................................................. 17 3.3.2 Household water use and bundles and complexes of practice ........................................ 22 4 Water infrastructure and household technologies ................................... 24 5 Water using practices in South East England ........................................... 29 5.1 Personal hygiene: Showers, baths and other washing ................................................... 29 5.1.1 An overview of practices .................................................................................................. 30 5.1.2 Six variants of washing practices ...................................................................................... 38 5.1.3 Detailed cluster results, and proxies of practice .............................................................. 42 5.1.4 Reflections on washing, showering and bathing .............................................................. 53 5.2 Laundry ........................................................................................................................... 54 5.2.1 An overview of laundry practices ..................................................................................... 55 5.2.2 Six variants of laundry practice ......................................................................................... 62 5.2.3 Detailed cluster results, and proxies of practice .............................................................. 66 5.2.4 Reflections on laundry ...................................................................................................... 74 5.3 Garden watering ............................................................................................................. 76 5.3.1 An overview of gardening practices ................................................................................. 77 5.3.2 Six variants of gardening practices ................................................................................... 82 5.3.3 Detailed cluster results, and proxies of practice .............................................................. 87 5.3.4 Reflections on garden watering ........................................................................................ 98 5.4 Kitchen use .................................................................................................................... 100 Patterns of Water report 5.4.1 An overview of kitchen practices .................................................................................... 100 5.4.2 Variants of kitchen practices........................................................................................... 109 5.4.3 Reflections on kitchen water use .................................................................................... 112 5.5 Vehicle cleaning ............................................................................................................ 114 5.5.1 An overview of vehicle cleaning practices ...................................................................... 115 5.5.2 Reflections on vehicle cleaning ....................................................................................... 117 6 The overall story of household water use: one of diversity .................... 119 6.1 Diversity in water using practices ................................................................................. 121 6.2 Diversity in the ‘average’ water using household: a practices perspective ................. 126 7 Discussion and conclusion ...................................................................... 129 Technical appendix ......................................................................................... 134 References ...................................................................................................... 163 Acknowledgements This research report is the result of two interconnected research projects, the EPSRC funded ARCC-Water (Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate) project, and the ESRC/DEFRA/Scottish Government funded Sustainable Practices Research Group ‘Patterns of Water’ project. We would like to thank the following people and organisations for their support: interviewees who generously gave up their time to complete the questionnaire and participate in the in-depth interviews; Rose Chard for her help in the qualitative interviews fieldwork; BMG Research for conducting the questionnaire fieldwork; our project partners in ARCC-Water (University of Oxford, UCL, University of Leeds, Loughborough University and HR Wallingford) and SPRG (Lancaster University, the University of Manchester, Essex University, the University of Edinburgh), particularly Elizabeth Shove for her assistance in the first year of the project; and other stakeholders (WWF-UK, Environment Agency, DEFRA, Waterwise, Thames Water, Essex and Suffolk Water, Anglian Water, Veolia Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Sembcorp and Southern Water). Project team The project team involved in the development of this research is as follows: Dr Ben Anderson – Sustainable Energy Research Group, the University of Southampton (previously University of Essex) Dr Alison Browne – Sustainable Consumption Institute, the University of Manchester (previously Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University) Dr Will Medd – Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University Dr Martin Pullinger – Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University For further details about the projects or the report please contact Dr Alison Browne [email protected]. Citations Pullinger, M., Browne, A., Anderson, B., & Medd, W. (2013). Patterns of water: The water related practices of households in southern England, and their influence on water consumption and demand management. Lancaster University: Lancaster UK. Downloadable from https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:187780 See also the associated ‘resource pack’, which is a synthesis of these results for teaching and any related demonstration work: Browne, A.L., Pullinger, M., Anderson, B., & Medd, W. (2013). Patterns of Water: Resource pack. Lancaster University: Lancaster UK. Downloadable from https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:187781 i Patterns of Water report Executive summary This report contains the findings of survey research on the patterns of water using practices in households across the South and South East of England. Following a ‘practice based’ approach to water demand, this research takes practices as the unit of analysis when exploring water use – rather than attitudes, behaviours or simply ‘litres used’ – and highlights how this changed unit of analysis allows for a deeper understanding of the routines and