1pm - 1:45pm
Wednesday 21 October 2026
Institute Seminar Series: Water efficiency through behaviour change: introducing the Water Efficiency Action, Research and Collaboration (ARC) lab
Free
University of Surrey
Guildford
Surrey
GU2 7XH
Abstract
Water scarcity is a national emergency. If no action is taken, England faces a shortfall of 5bn litres of freshwater daily by 2055, with the prospect of cuts to supply. The UK water sector wants to adopt behavioural solutions to manage demand, but lacks the skills, knowledge and capacity to do so.
Our new group – the Water Efficiency Action, Research and Collaboration (ARC) lab – is emerging as the field-leader in water efficiency behaviour change research in the UK.
In this talk, we discuss our ongoing programme of cutting-edge research that uses behavioural science to understand and change how people use water in their everyday lives. We showcase novel findings from our lab, including observational studies of the consistency of showering behaviour, assessments of how much water is used – and needed – for showering, and trials of water-efficient products to reduce toilet-flushing. We describe our growing living lab infrastructure, which includes smart sensors on every pipe within a student accommodation block that contains 165 rooms, and our impact work, where, working with over 100 UK water sector representatives, we co-created a research and action agenda to map the road ahead.
Speakers
Professor Benjamin Gardner
Professor in Psychology
Biography
Prof Benjamin Gardner is recognised internationally as an expert researcher, lecturer and public speaker in the psychology of habitual behaviour. Over 20+ years of behavioural science research, he has published over 200 research papers and book chapters, mostly exploring how the concept of 'habit' can be drawn on to understand and change everyday human behaviours, with especial focus on health behaviours. He has given talks and hosted seminars and workshops with academic, practitioner, commercial and public audiences across the UK and Europe, and in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and USA. As of August 2026, his work has been cited over 20,000 times, including in more than 200 policy documents.
Prof Gardner is founder and co-Director of the Water Efficiency Action, Research and Collaboration (ARC) Lab, co-Director of the Habit Application and Theory group, and co-Lead of the European Health Psychology Society Habit Special Interest Group. He holds editorial board positions at Health Psychology Review and Social Science & Medicine, and is a Consultant at British Journal of Health Psychology. He was elected Honorary Fellow of the European Health Psychology Society in 2026.
Prof Gardner's research relates to psychological processes that affect all behaviours. Nonetheless, the main behaviours that he has focused on to date have been health (e.g., sedentary behaviour and sitting, physical activity, dietary consumption) and environmentally relevant actions (e.g., water consumption, travel mode choice). He has led funded research projects to develop novel habit-based interventions to reduce sedentary behaviour in office workers and older adults, and contributed habit and behaviour change expertise to funded work (e.g. MRC, NIHR) supporting health promotion among older adults, office workers, parents and children.
Dr Pablo Pereira Doel
Human Insight Lab co-director; Fellow at the Institute for Sustainability; Visiting Fellow, Center for Tourism Research at Wakayama University (Japan)
Biography
I am a behavioural scientist working on how everyday resource-use behaviours - above all, how we use water - can be measured, understood and redesigned. I co-direct the Water Efficiency Action, Research and Collaboration (ARC) Lab with Professor Benjamin Gardner, and co-lead a campus living lab in which monitoring technology installed in student accommodation allows interventions to be tested in situ. I am also co-director of the Human Insight Lab at Surrey Business School and a Fellow of the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey.
Most research on water behaviour relies on what people say they do. I measure what they actually do. Drawing on behavioural science, environmental psychology, data analytics, and design research, I study the structural and contextual drivers of behaviour using sensor technology and biometric methods (eye-tracking, galvanic skin response, facial-expression analysis) in laboratory, field, and hybrid experiments across real-world settings such as homes, student accommodation, hotels, healthcare facilities, and product-use contexts. Much of my work is co-created with industry and policy partners to translate evidence into practical, measurable change.
My work has been recognised with the Charles R. Goeldner Award for the best article published in the Journal of Travel Research in 2025, and the CHME/CoStar Rising Star Award. My research has featured in over 30 international media outlets since 2024, including the Financial Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, The Guardian and Sky News.
Contact us
Email ifs@surrey.ac.uk for the Teams link and with any questions.
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