Inside the Nudge Unit

BIT ran a trial, led by our environment lead Marcos Pelenur, with a large retailer in the UK expressing the energy efficiency of appliances in terms of how much they are likely to cost to run over the products’ typical lifespan (typically around nine years). 5 Sure enough, when labels had this extra information consumers tended to buy slightly more expensive but more efficient products, at least in a product class with high usage costs, such as washer-dryers. Clearly, the effectiveness of the intervention rests on supplying that information while the consumer is still deciding what to buy.