ENERGY LITERACY AND BEHAVIOR AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. THE CASE OF UPPSALA UNIVERSITY, CAMPUS GOTLAND.

Abstract: Energy is one of the most critical elements that support societies in the modern world. As with anything else, energy is a limited resource, and saving it is essential for a fossil-free future where one is aware of their energy consumption and knows what is needed to save it. Recently, Europe has been faced with severe energy shortages where Sweden for example was under the threat of blackouts in 2022/2023. As a way to mitigate the problem, The EU introduced a law that obliges individuals and institutions to reduce their energy consumption during peak hours. In Sweden, this was translated into “Varje kWh räknas” or every kilowatt-hour counts campaign in order to promote energy saving in society. Uppsala university is one of the institutions that had to reduce the energy consumption where students play a role in this energy saving. On the other hand, energy literacy is defined as the way people understand energy, how it is being used, and the attitudes regarding saving it. Previous research (such as Cotton et al., 2015; DeWaters and Powers, 2011; Blasch et al., 2017) about energy literacy tended to focus on various societal groups when investigating the three different domains of energy literacy: cognitive, attitude, and behavior. The cognitive domain is defined as the knowledge related to energy basic rules and concepts, while the affective domain is defined as the attitudes toward energy such as beliefs, values, feelings, etc. Behavioral literacy is the intentions, involvement, and decisions one makes in relation to energy and energy saving. This study aims to explore themes and opinions in energy behaviour, perception, and literacy among students in order to understand the current ways energy literacy is being promoted and taught at Uppsala University and the wayes to imporove it. This was done by providing answer to the resurch question: What cognitive, behavioural, and affective knowledge do students have about the nature and role of energy in their daily lives?In this study, students at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland were interviewed and asked questions about energy and their energy-related attitude and behavior. The data was collected via interviews and then analyzed thematically. The discovered themes varied from students covering the cognitive domain elements to the difference in themes in relation to affective and behavioral domains. Students in general talked about energy in relation to factors that would affect energy behavior and would in turn contribute to saving energy like education. Students also covered various forms of feelings related to energy like anger, fear, and hopefulness. Additionally, various factors showed different patterns when talking about energy-related behavior, energy-saving ivattitudes, and the general perception of the relation between knowing about energy and the attitude and behavior domain. When covering the role of Uppsala University, all students have illustrated the importance of introducing energy-related education to the official curriculum, as well as other methods related to Uppsala University to increase energy knowledge amongst students.