Dr Pablo Pereira-Doel

The research builds for the first time on the boundaries between two sets of literature. First, the motivations of small tourism accommodation providers for acting sustainably. Secondly, how such providers should communicate sustainability to the market. This study examines the reasons why six small tourism accommodations engage in sustainability practices and how that is reflected on their websites. The study (1) exposes three motivations to act sustainably; (2) reflects on some of the challenges encountered when communicating sustainability; and (3) reflects on how the six businesses use persuasion communicating their sustainability practices. This paper highlights the importance of the message, which needs to be credible, customer-focused and persuasive to be effective. All three aspects score low in the businesses analysed, demonstrating a missed opportunity of using sustainability communications to enhance the quality of the product, improve the customer experience, secure marketing advantage and contribute to repeats and referrals.

Hotel guests’ behaviour is crucial to reduce water depletion, energy use and carbon emissions. In this covert field experiment we assessed the effectiveness of real-time feedback provided by smart water-saving technology in fostering hotel guests to shorten their showers. A 12,06% reduction in showering time (N=1,962) confirms that real-time feedback is effective in eliciting pro-environmental behaviour, even in hedonic contexts. Moreover, results suggest that even with no real-time feedback, the regular shower in a hotel may be shorter than at home. Tourism can be a force for good and the use of technology can shape pro-environmental behaviour among the public.

England is projected to face a water supply shortfall of 4 billion litres daily by 2050, mostly due to population growth and increasing climate-driven droughts and flooding. The Environment Act 2021 mandates significant water usage reductions, targeting a decrease for households from the current 144 litres per person/day to 110, and a 15% reduction for businesses. Enhancing water efficiency in showers is crucial, given their high water consumption, energy use and associated carbon emissions.

This study inductively applies the Feedback Intervention Theory by empirically demonstrating the effectiveness of continuous, real-time eco-feedback and its interaction with motivational factors in modifying showering behavior. We conducted a covert true experiment across six tourist accommodations in Denmark, Spain, and the UK, where we deployed smart technology, in the form of a timer to provide the eco-feedback, coupled with persuasive messages. Data from over 17,500 showers showed that continuous, real-time eco-feedback reduced water runtime by 25.79% (CI = 8.24%; 39.98%). When the eco-feedback was paired with the most effective message—priming pro-environmental values and requiring a high effort to comply—water runtime was reduced by 23.55% (CI = 17.53%; 29.13%). The study’s robust experimental design, and its emphasis on actual behavior measurement, highlight the potential of smart technology to facilitate resource conservation.

Objective

Environmental life cycle assessment of hair care products shows that the highest environmental impact is associated with the use phase, rather than conception, production, packaging, distribution or disposal of the products themselves. To measure the water consumed in the use phase, an innovative and cost-effective methodology was developed and tested to measure the water consumed to rinse off hair care products (rinsability).

Methods

Over 4 months, we tested the rinsability of 10 shampoos and 10 hair conditioners applied to 148 females, split between six hair characteristics: length, volume, dryness, thickness, curliness and damage. The volunteers were received in a hair salon on 20 different occasions for about 30 min each time. A team of hairdressers was specifically trained to detect two indicators of when a product is rinsed: a visual disappearance of the product and a clean touch. The volunteers were asked to have their hair washed at home 48 h before their arrival, using a standardized shampoo to control for sebum apparition.

Results

According to this test, on average, 7.1 L of water are needed to rinse a shampoo and 6.3 L to rinse a hair conditioner. However, there are significant differences depending on hair types: long and abundant hair requires more water to rinse shampoos and conditioners, whereas hair thickness, curliness, dryness and damage do not significantly affect the water required.

Conclusion

We suggest that data on product rinsability are essential when considering the water footprint for shampoos and hair conditioners. This method could be adopted for industry-wide experimentation to assess the water footprint of products and set reduction targets.

The report sets out some of the challenges hospitality providers face when communicating with guests on sustainability and identifies four key ways to positively influence guest behaviour.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly heightened global awareness of hand hygiene as a critical public health measure, with regular and thorough handwashing widely promoted to reduce infection transmission. However, less is known about current hand hygiene behaviour. In collaboration with a Danish hospital, a high-risk setting for infections, we monitored hygiene-related activity in two public toilets used mainly by patients and guests, using unobtrusive sensor technology. Aguardio Pipe Sensors were installed on both toilet and sink pipes to track toilet use (flushes) and sink use (handwashing).

This project describes work undertaken with UK water industry stakeholders to co-create an agenda to guide water efficiency behaviour change research and action. This project entry contains materials and outputs from three co-creation activities run with stakeholder representatives: an in-person workshop, run in October 2024 (Activity 1), a survey run in Oct 2024-Jan 2025 (Activity 2), and a webinar run in April 2025 (Activity 3). (NB - linked OSF preprint listed as 'rejected' due to being placed in the wrong OSF section.