Energy consulting for private households can make a significant contribution to achieving energy efficiency targets. The extent to which these targets can be validated, however, depends to a large degree on the consideration of the individual demands of the consulted people and/or households. Not only do socioeconomic, environmental and structural factors like income, climate or living space have an impact on the effectiveness of energy consulting but also the consideration of people’s habits, needs, preferences, values, attitudes etc. Due to the fact that the common practice of energy consulting is insufficient in terms of taking into account household and end-use energy consumer related factors, energy savings gained through energy consulting for private households have, as a result, been unsatisfactory.

The Austrian cooperative research project “Alltagsspuren“ (loosely translated “Everyday Tracks“) aims to develop tools supporting smaller (rural) municipalities in promoting sustainable and active mobility using quantitative and qualitative data collection methods together with analysis and activation tools.