One of the goals of the ACE-Retrofitting project is to encourage people to retrofit their condominium. A change in behaviour is required. And for a change in behaviour to occur, a change in intention is needed...
The intention to change is determined by attitude, perceived social norms and perceived behavioural control, as lined out by the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) - see figure below - by Fishbein and Ajzen (2010).
Thanks to focus groups organised in the ACE-Retrofitting partner cities, we will identify these determinants and their underlying beliefs. In addition, it is important to identify external factors (e.g., financial resources, policies) that may hinder or facilitate turning a positive intention towards retrofitting into actually taking retrofitting measures.
As each city has different policies and organisational structures, we will conduct at least 2 focus groups with condominiums which have not been (successfully) retrofitted yet.
Residents, building managers and other stakeholders will be involved in order to identify the relevant variables for behavioural change. We assess these variables in each city independently and from that we will see if we have to tailor behaviour change interventions to the specific needs of the relevant cities and their citizens.
The first focus group was held on 11 October 2017 in Liège, Belgium. It was a successful meeting which already gave interesting insights into the behaviour and opinions of residents and other stakeholders on retrofitting. More focus groups will follow soon in the 6 cities involved in the ACE-Retrofitting project.
