Understanding a housing cooperatives' reasons for rejecting energy-efficient outdoor lighting

Interviews with board members and surveys of residents in a Swedish housing cooperative revealed that their choice to partly reject new energy-efficient outdoor lighting for their outdoor environment (retrofit with light emitting diods) was motivated by multiple goal frames. The board weighed the normative goal of perceived safety and the subordinate hedonic goal of the perceived quality of the light against gain goals. The final choice could be attributed to the normative goal of perceived safety for the elderly. This was consistent with the view of the residents who rated all goal frames high, but perceived safety as the most important. Adoption or rejection of new energy-efficient lighting technology is determined by both cost and energy savings, and people's expectations and perceptions of the light and the lit environment.