Reduce Your Juice: An Environmental Protection and Sustainability Case Study

The Reduce Your Juice (RYJ) program targeted younger adult renters in greater Brisbane. This demographic was considered underserviced, difficult to reach and engage, and least likely to act in traditional energy efficiency programs. Three electronic games provided carefully designed experiential journeys with tangible incentives. The pilot showed that a do-feel-learn approach (change behavior then attitudes) can be successful. Social marketing has traditionally used a learn-feel-do (change attitudes then behavior) approach. It also showed that gamification can be used successfully and cost-effectively with low-income households, which have tended to be hard-to-engage. The pilot initiative yielded a 22.5% increase in energy habits adopted, a 12.3% reduction in energy consumption, and an 11.0% reduction in electricity bills (averaging $219.28 per household per year). The return on investment for this small-scale pilot was roughly one dollar of benefit per dollar invested, but when delivered to 10,000 and 100,000 participants that would climb to $2.02 and $2.70 in benefits for each dollar invested.