Meeting Recap (2.2.11) - Jonas Milder, Sherry Lefevre, Neil Kleinman

We presented our project’s current status, including our project context, problem statement, interviews/observation, literature review, project strategy and timeline. Neil, Jonas, and Sherry gave us feedback on our presentation as well as our design strategy and potential hurdles. They recommended we take the following actions:

1. Talk to a designer to get their perspective regarding their role and the role of contractors in the process of assisting clients make decisions

2. Look into literature pertaining to ways in which similar audiences as ours (women, manufacturers, contractors), have been addressed in projects of changing behavior

3. When presenting, be wary of referring to situations in a negative tone and instead, reinforce positive attributes

4. Understand more deeply the ways in which other resources have been reduced in consumption. (how did energy efficient lightbulbs come to be so common?)

5. Look into the businesses that advise their clients to make their whole house more energy efficient

6. Talk to PECO - i.e. What do they do to educate the population?

7. Talk to Waterworks

8. Look deeper into how water bills are designed, could be re-designed

9. Talk to a manufacturer - What do they use to make their products visible and appealing to distributers and consumers? What are their intentions beyond sales?

10. Look at and compare European fixtures to American ones. How did they make efficiency the norm? When did they improve efficiency? What types of fixtures exist in the US vs Europe?

11. Research previous examples of changing stakeholder behavior (e.g., the 1996 toilet flow mandate) and understand how to initiate this type of change for each audience

12. Look into the WaterSense seal; its adoption may be fueled by the interests of corporations. Does WaterSense truly lead to efficiency, or is it just another selling point?

13. Identify additional touch points along the water fixture lifecycle (e.g., bill design, feedback systems, retail display, etc.) to serve as possible entry points

14. Work on presenting the efficiency/purchasing behaviors vs. curtailment behaviors more clearly