Effects of Voluntary and Involuntary Real Lab Situations on Personal Carbon Footprints of Private Households. Experiences From Germany
Open accessAbstract
This paper compares the carbon footprint effects of a voluntary real lab with those of the involuntary “real lab” provided by the lockdowns during the recent Corona crisis. In a voluntary real lab situation, 100 private households in Berlin (Germany) have tried to reduce their personal carbon footprints over 1 year (2018). The households have been equipped with a weekly carbon tracker, calculating their CO 2e1 footprint in the domains housing energy, mobility on ground, air travel, food, other consumption, and public consumption. The households have been informed by various channels and supported by a network of “green” local enterprises and NGOs. It was also possible for them to make use of in-home energy advisors, identifying easy-to-accomplish saving potential. On average, the households managed to reduce their footprint by 11%, with individual savings of up to 40%. One of the major problems the households have been experiencing was refraining from air travel, e.g., by substituting it by train l. Others identified road safety as a major problem when switching from cars to bikes. With an annual reduction of 10%, carbon neutrality could be reached in or even before 2050. But political decisions are needed in order to change the collective boundary conditions. In 2020, Germany–as many other countries–has experienced a COVID-19 lockdown with substantial restrictions to all kinds of consumption activities (flying, international travel, consumption activities in the public etc.). This work compares the CO 2 reduction effects of these two “real labs,” a voluntary and an imposed one, and ask what the relative quantitative effects are. Following that comparison, it reflect upon the similarities and differences of voluntary and imposed situations, and what there can be learned for the implementation of policies for more sustainable production and consumption patterns.
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Households in Berlin saved an average of 11% in carbon emissions, with some people saving up to 40%.
“The findings indicated that households saved an average of 11% in carbon emissions, with some people saving up to 40% (Reusswig et al. 2021).”
From Strategies to achieve a carbon neutral society: a review (2022) · cites this paper as Reusswig et al. 2021
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Kause, A., de Bruin, W. B., Millward-Hopkins, J., & Olsson, H. (2019) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab465d · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Environmentally harmful subsidies
Barde, J.-P., & Honkatukia, O. (2004) · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · doi:10.4337/9781845420680.00016 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Synergies and trade-offs between energy-efficient urbanization and health
Ahmad, S., Pachauri, S., & Creutzig, F. (2017) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa9281 · Cited by 27 · cited 1× · see citing works
“studies point to plant-based diets, conserving energy, curtailing travel and living car-free as the most promising actions to reduce impact while enhancing human well-being (Gardner and Stern, 2008; Dietz et al., 2009; Girod et al., 2014; Westhoek et al., 2014; Sorrell, 2015; Ivanova et al., 2016; Schanes et al., 2016…”
BackgroundPandemic Shocks and Household Spending*
Finck, D., & Tillmann, P. (2021) · Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics · doi:10.1111/obes.12471 · Cited by 27 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Similar findings come from the US (Finck and Tillmann, 2020).”
Cafaro, P. (2011) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511732294.010 · Cited by 26 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Individuals can save immense amounts of carbon by mobilizing so-called “behavioral mitigation wedges,” for example as much as 15 gigatons by 2060 simply by changing their diet to avoid meat, or by forgoing air travel (Cafaro, 2011).”
The impact of corona populism: Empirical evidence from Austria and theory
Mellacher, P. (2023) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2023.02.021 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Reußwig, F., Lass, W., & Bock, S. (2020) · Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen · doi:10.1515/fjsb-2020-0012 · Cited by 16 · cited 1× · see citing works
“The recent climate discourse in the German society has experienced a high degree of fragmentation and polarization, with groups such as Fridays for Future on the one hand and right-wing populists on the other as drivers (Reusswig et al., 2020).”
BackgroundSelf-citationBehaviour: Seeing heat saves energy
Steg, L. (2016) · Nature Energy · doi:10.1038/nenergy.2015.13 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Werner, C. M., & Stanley, C. P. (2011) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2011.08.003 · Cited by 10 · cited 2× · see citing works
“, group discussions that provide exchange and a space for justification and modification of beliefs (Werner and Stanley, 2011), or commitment making (Lokhorst et al.”
BackgroundPerceptive Risk Clusters of European Citizens and NPI Compliance in Face of the COVID-19 PandemicsPreprint
Bughin, J., Cincera, M., Reykowska, D., Żyszkiewicz, M., & Ohme, R. K. (2020) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3749926 · Cited by 7 · cited 1× · see citing works
“But if people are less socially oriented and/or risk takers, or even adhere to some kind of conspiracy theory and/or are following populist discourse, they will not trust the government and join gatherings as before—or even more so in order to exhibit their protest against “government arbitrariness” (Bughin et al., 20…”
BackgroundThe Impact of Corona Populism: Empirical Evidence from Austria and TheoryPreprint
Mellacher, P. (2020) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3757268 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Is COVID-19 a consumption game changer? Evidence from a large-scale multi-country survey
Hodbod, A., Hommes, C., Huber, S. J., & Salle, I. L. (2020) · UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Atkinson, L. (2015) · International journal of communication · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Co2rona Effekt - Sektorspezifische Betrachtung in Deutschland 2020
Alfeis, L.-M., Deierling, P., Gödecke, T., Mevers, S., Zimmermann, T., Andres, S. F., Bedrunka, A., & Lüdersen, U. (2020) · SerWisS (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover) · doi:10.25968/opus-1671 · Cited by 1 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Early attempts to assess the CO2 effect in the German case, undertaken in spring and summer 2020, range from 3.2 to 28.9 percent reductions (Agora, 2020; Alfeis et al., 2020).”
BackgroundInfluential
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 4
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- Bounie, D., Camara, Y., Fize, E., Galbraith, J., Landais, C., Lavest, C., et al. (2020). Consumption Dynamics in the COVID Crisis: Real-Time Insights From French Transaction and Bank Data. CEPR Discussion paper No. DP15474. Available online at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3737607 (accessed December 13, 2020).
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Strategies to achieve a carbon neutral society: a review
Chen, L., Msigwa, G., Yang, M., Osman, A. I., Fawzy, S., Rooney, D. W., & Yap, P.-S. (2022) · Environmental Chemistry Letters · doi:10.1007/s10311-022-01435-8 · Cited by 1,326 · see citing works
“The findings indicated that households saved an average of 11% in carbon emissions, with some people saving up to 40% (Reusswig et al. 2021).”
BackgroundShim, J., Lim, H., Song, D., & Park, S. (2025) · Energy and Buildings · doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.116501 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Carbon Neutrality and Resilient Districts, a Common Strategy in European Union Countries in 2050
Nematchoua, M. K., Rakotomalala, M. S., & Reiter, S. (2025) · Atmosphere · doi:10.3390/atmos16050508 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Toward Carbon Neutrality in Malaysia: Initiatives, Challenges, and Solutions
Khuzairi, N. M. S., Law, Y. F., & Dass, A. S. (2024) · Springer proceedings in earth and environmental sciences · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-59497-7_9 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Ist die Milieubetrachtung noch zeitgemäß? Zur Relevanz der Sinus-Milieus®
Barth, B., & Flaig, B. B. (2023) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-42380-3_4
Efficacy Simulations: A pattern of inadequate environmental actionPreprint
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- Authors
- Reusswig, F., Bock, S., Schleer, C., & Lass, W.
- Affiliations
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Reusswig, Fritz
- Venue
- Frontiers in Sustainability
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2021-06-02
- Volume
- 2
- ISSN
- 2673-4524 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3170145463
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 82
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Publication Database PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental Education and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › COVID-19 impact on air quality
- Keywords
- personal carbon footprint, COVID-19 lockdown, household energy consumption, carbon neutrality, sustainable consumption, sustainable production
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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