Energy-efficiency related research has reached a growing interest in recent years due to the imminent scarcity of non-renewable resources in our environment and the impending impacts their usage have on our environment. Thus, facing the reduction of energy waste and management has become a pivotal issue in our society. To cope with energy inefficiency, the scientific research community has identified the promotion of people’s behaviour change as a critical field to foster environmental sustainability. However, the body of literature shows a lack of systematic methods and processes to reach a common ground when designing technology for promoting sustainable behaviour change. Therefore, this paper contributes with a thorough review and analysis of state of the art. Firstly, theoretical works related to behaviour change are collected and studied to clarify their main concepts and theories. Secondly, the different technologies, processes, methods and techniques applied in the field are reviewed to find diverse strategies in the application of the previously explained theoretical domains. Moreover, a wide range of systems developed to improve energy efficiency through human behaviour change is analysed (from augmented objects to the Internet of Things, digital applications or websites). Finally, the detected research gaps are listed to guide future research when aiming to raise the awareness of individuals through Information and Communication Technologies.

Smart Cities aim to increase citizens’ quality of life. Smart Government is a part of Smart Cities domain aiming to enhance the communication and interactions of citizens and companies with government. The SIMPATICO framework combines machine and human intelligence to simplify e-services i.e., web accessible apps to accomplish administrative procedures online, and thus enable a more widespread adoption of electronic procedures. This paper reviews the impact of instrumenting e-services, in Galicia region in Spain, with SIMPATICO features, e.g., text and workflow simplication, autocompletion of personal data and public procedure documentation and support through crowdsourced questions and answers. Particularly, taking into account the lessons learnt at the first pilot evaluation with Elderly people, this paper describes the public procedure model proposed by SIMPATICO which backs the application of diverse strategies to better support users while facing the completion of complex administrative procedures.

The heterogeneity and dynamism of people make addressing user diversity and its categorisation critical factors, which should be carefully considered when developing pro-environmental strategies and interventions. Nevertheless, the complexities of individuals complicates the creation of modelling and classification systems. The aforementioned issue opens a research opportunity, which should be tackled to improve the development of human-centric systems and processes. Throughout the present piece of research, our objective is to bridge that gap by extracting knowledge and insights relating to how to address user diversity when designing technologies considering sustainable behaviour. For this, we explore the possibilities of the FOX model—an early meta-model to approach the diversity of individuals when addressing pro-environmental behaviour—to classify and understand individuals while taking their heterogeneity into account. After introducing the model, a qualitative survey of eight experts is conducted. From this study, relevant findings are analysed and exposed. Taking into account the gathered knowledge, three user profiles are developed, based on the dimensions proposed by the model. Furthermore, scenarios are created for each profile, presenting three case studies where different application modes of the model are described (personalised interventions, prediction and forecasting, and individual and collective interventions). Finally, the extracted findings are analysed, discussing the main issues related to the development of pro-environmental technologies and systems.

Addressing how human behaviour can be taken into account when designing for sustainability is an emerging topic in the development of pro-environmental person-centred smart systems. Indeed, user diversity and categorisation in the context of sustainable behaviour was already studied by some scholars in recent literature. However, the complexity of the individual present some open challenges that still have to be further investigated. In this work, behavioural theories and user characterisation are analysed together to better understand the human factors when trying to influence sustainable lifestyles and actions. Then, theoretical frameworks are combined and mapped in a novel user meta-model, coined FOX, that classifies the individual dynamically taking into account its heterogeneity and diversity. The dimensions involved in the FOX proposal are explained by describing the categorisation of each dimension. Besides, an example of the potential application of the model is exposed to better contextualise the work presented. Finally, controversial aspects and emerging ideas of the proposal are equally discussed throughout the paper as well as we discuss the use of FOX model to inform the design of behaviour change interventions related to sustainability.