Evaluating Energy Conservation Programs: Is Verbal Report Enough?

T here is a national need for community sources of applicable energy information, and for conservation programs to organize appropriate community services and consumer education to help householders cope with energysupply problems. In response to these needs, both state and national agencies have formed special organizations to disseminate energy conservation advice. For example, since 1977 state agencies and universities in Virginia have been funded annually to provide the general public with energyconservation information through community-based workshops. It has been estimated that more than 12,000 residents in Virginia attended energy conservation workshops in 1978 and 1979 (Geller, Ferguson, and Brasted 1979). For seven of the workshops presented by an interdisciplinary team of five professors and six students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the attitudes, knowledge, and behavioral intentions regarding energy conservation of all adult workshop attendees were assessed through a 21-item questionnaire. Subsequently, an evaluation of the actual behavioral effects of the workshops was accomplished by visiting the homes of 40 workshop attendees and 40 residents who had not attended an energy-conservation workshop in 1977 or 1978, and determining whether certain energy-conservation actions (which had been advised at the workshops) had been taken.