Building Better with BehSci: Collaborating Toward Sustainable and Affordable Housing

To fully grasp the challenge of sustainable and affordable housing, it’s essential to first understand what each of these is on their own. Sustainable housing aims to provide healthy, durable, and safe homes while minimizing environmental impact through the use of low-impact materials, energy-efficient designs, and integration into community infrastructure.⁴ On the other hand, affordable housing refers to housing that is reasonably priced and accessible to a broad spectrum of income levels, particularly targeting low- and middle-income households, which is typically not exceeding 30% of their gross income.⁵

Achieving sustainable and affordable housing involves more than just economic savings; it encapsulates operational efficiency, resource conservation, and waste reduction. However, numerous hurdles obstruct the path to the widespread adoption of these practices. Stakeholders from various sectors must grapple with distinct challenges that often discourage them from adopting sustainable solutions. High housing costs driven by supply shortages and speculative investments make it difficult for buyers, especially first-time and low-income buyers, to afford housing, even more so the perceived higher upfront costs of sustainable homes.⁶ 

Meanwhile, builders face significant obstacles due to lengthy development processes from limiting zoning laws and building regulations, impacting the ability to respond quickly to housing demand. Additionally, financing housing projects often involves balancing profitability of investments with the social need for affordable housing while navigating a complex policy environment that can either incentivize or deter participation, depending on how policies are structured.⁷

One of the biggest barriers in this realm is NIMBYism (not in my backyard), where homeowners and residents oppose local development because they fear it will have negative impacts in their neighborhood, leading to a bargaining failure among stakeholders. Addressing housing at the local community level is even more challenging to navigate due to zoning decisions being heavily influenced by local homeowner groups out of concern that a new development might change the character of their community, creating congestion and safety risks, and depressing property prices.⁸ This often happens because new projects and technologies fail to demonstrate their real benefits and address concerns about potential downsides.

While the challenges of adopting sustainable and affordable housing are substantial, the evidence increasingly supports that environmental solutions can actually unlock affordability in the long term. The World Green Building Council indicates that sustainable building can reduce maintenance costs by about 20% and lower energy and water expenses by around 30% and 40%, respectively. The incorporation of renewable energy sources such as solar panels enables cost savings and potential income through surplus energy production via net metering,⁹ which is a way for homeowners who own solar panels to sell their excess energy back to the grid.¹⁰

Therefore, sustainable housing isn’t just about being eco-friendly and responsible—it’s also a smart financial move. Eco-friendly homes have the potential to bring affordability within reach for more people by lowering long-term living expenses and boosting property value.¹¹ 

Behavioral science explores how individual beliefs, societal norms, and environmental cues shape decisions. Applying these insights can help design housing initiatives that resonate with stakeholders' values and motivations to effectively communicate the benefits of sustainable practices—such as energy efficiency, resource conservation, and reduced long-term living costs—making homes more affordable for a broader range of people.

Thoughtfully Nudging Sustainable Defaults 

Local building councils can shift building permit applications to default towards sustainability standards, nudging builders to consider greener practices without limiting choice. Partner councils in Victoria trialed a framework to provide statutory planners with a basis for achieving stronger sustainability outcomes in residential subdivisions.¹² In particular, the framework made sustainability the default option for developers and planners to consider and incorporate sustainable practices unless they actively chose otherwise. This led to stronger environmental baselines in new subdivisions, as developers were guided to adopt sustainable practices as part of the standard approval process.

Similarly, making energy efficiency ratings a part of housing listings influences buyer decisions, guiding them towards more sustainable choices. Interest in buying energy-efficient homes is high among prospective homebuyers, with 59% saying this is important and only 7% saying it is unimportant.¹³ When these ratings are clearly displayed, they highlight savings and benefits of energy-efficient homes, making it easier to compare options. As a result, buyers are more likely to choose homes with higher ratings, knowing they will incur lower utility costs and contribute to sustainability.¹⁴ This approach leverages the behavioral tendency to stick with presented defaults—in this case, energy efficiency ratings— as we tend to go with the options that are made easy for us.

Incentivizing Action through Policy Innovations

Behavioral science supports the effective design of policy instruments that can motivate stakeholder action. Reward mechanisms such as tax breaks, faster permitting processes, and access to alternative financing (such as longer loan terms and subsidies)^15,16 make opting for green homes more enticing. Such financial strategies help address financial burden among builders and buyers alike to invest in sustainable housing. This is a win-win for local communities that are now able to increase their units and promote quicker adoption of green technologies. 

Policies can also emphasize the potential losses from failing to adopt sustainable practices to often motivate action more strongly than those that communicate benefits.¹⁷ For example, some councils impose penalties for developers who fail to meet green standards in their projects. It was found that increasing the magnitude of penalties actually improved compliance rates compared to when only incentives were provided.¹⁸

Combating NIMBY with Social Proof

According to the concept of social proof, having real demonstrations of success stories is very important for motivation. When people observe their peers adopting sustainable products, they are more likely to consider these to be trustworthy and desirable.¹⁹ Communities that come together to build homes sustainably write a story showing what’s possible. These projects become living examples that change how neighborhoods think about homes and these successes can shift norms and expectations towards sustainable living, such as reduced energy costs and enhanced community engagement, that can motivate its wider adoption. While community engagement provides an avenue for more people to be involved in developing their neighborhoods, these must include a diverse range of demographics, such as younger or older citizens, minorities, and culturally diverse groups, to ensure inclusiveness and effectiveness of these initiatives.²⁰

Building better homes requires more than just designers and builders. It takes an entire village who understands the role that each stakeholder must play to deliver eco-friendly and cost-friendly homes.

Behavioral insights can provide the tools to better understand core housing needs, allowing us to encourage the sector to prioritize sustainable and affordable housing that people actually want to call home—where they can enjoy connection to essential services, enhanced well-being, and cultural integrity, in buildings that contribute positively to both present and future generations to come.