{"id":693402,"date":"2026-02-05T14:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=693402"},"modified":"2026-02-05T14:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:43:09","slug":"harm-reduction-water-conservation-smart-irrigation-controller-693402","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/harm-reduction-water-conservation-smart-irrigation-controller-693402\/","title":{"rendered":"How to entice water guzzlers to conserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California field experiment shows why targeting high water users with the right incentives outperforms years of public messaging.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When Kristina Brecko arrived at Stanford University in the fall of 2012 to start her PhD, she was already scanning the weather forecast\u2014not for rainfall, but for snow. An avid snowboarder, she and her graduate study advisor, Wesley Hartmann<\/a>, a skier, were eager to get into the mountains.<\/p>\n

There would be no great skiing that winter. California was entering what would become one of the most severe droughts in its history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked to snowboard,\u201d Brecko says. \u201cAnd so it was very salient that there really wasn\u2019t any good snow that year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The drought, which stretched from 2012 to 2017<\/a>, transformed daily life across the state. Cities pleaded with residents to conserve water and let lawns go brown, rip out grass, stop watering altogether. Billboards and public campaigns urged restraint. Many complied. But some of the state\u2019s heaviest water users, often homeowners with sprawling green lawns, did not.<\/p>\n

For Brecko, now an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Rochester<\/a>\u2019s Simon Business School<\/a>, the disconnect raised a question that would shape years of research. California was awash in public opinion messaging. Was any of it effective?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of messaging happening, telling people to reduce their water usage,\u201d she recalls. \u201cAnd I had these question\u2014it\u2019s all marketing, but is it working? What exactly is working and for whom?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than focusing on the people who had already embraced conservation\u2014those willing to let their lawns die or remove them entirely\u2014Brecko and Hartmann became interested in the holdouts\u2014that is, the households with the highest water consumption. Their findings<\/a>, published in the Journal of Marketing Research<\/em>, argue that those households should not be shamed or ignored. Instead, they should be targeted.<\/p>\n

Harm reduction over abstinence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The study borrows a concept from public health: the idea of harm reduction. Instead of demanding abstinence\u2014no drugs, no cigarettes, no lawns\u2014the approach aims to reduce damage among people unlikely to completely quit a harmful action.<\/p>\n

In California\u2019s drought-stricken suburbs, the harm was outdoor irrigation. The tool was a smart irrigation controller, a device that automatically adjusts watering schedules based on weather, soil conditions, and plant needs. The question was whether such a device could significantly reduce water use without undermining more aggressive conservation efforts, like turf removal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019re always going to be people who are just not going to do it,\u201d Brecko says, referring to lawn removal. \u201cBecause it goes totally against their preferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with Redwood City Public Works, the researchers tested whether offering irrigation controllers (at either steep discounts or for free) could change behavior among residents who wanted to keep their lawns green. Crucially, the study took place toward the end of the drought, after years of aggressive messaging and rebates for turf removal had already circulated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time we ran our study, people had had the chance to adopt the most effective solution\u2014at least those people who would do it,\u201d Brecko explains.<\/p>\n

That timing mattered. Those most committed to conservation had already removed their turf. That meant the researchers could now focus on everyone else.<\/p>\n

Field tests in thirsty times<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The team ran two large-scale field experiments in Redwood City. In 2016, roughly 7,000 households were offered discounts on smart irrigation controllers, ranging from 10 percent to 80 percent. Some homeowners were also offered free professional installation.<\/p>\n

Adoption was slower than expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people just weren\u2019t sure,\u201d Brecko says. \u201cThe device was relatively new, and even the utility company wasn\u2019t sure what effect it would have on water usage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second experiment, in 2017, scaled up dramatically. About 19,000 households were randomly assigned to receive a free smart irrigation device, available in limited quantities. The process was designed to be as easy as possible: Residents received emails and accessed a dedicated online portal where discounts were applied instantly\u2014no rebates, no paperwork.<\/p>\n

The response was swift. Clearly, price and convenience mattered. Messaging alone did not. \u201cIncremental discounts aren\u2019t really going to do the trick,\u201d Brecko notes. \u201cWe learned that we needed to overcome some barriers to adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An
IRRIGATION ACTIVATION:<\/strong> When it comes to adopting water-conservation approaches, price and convenience matter for homeowners. But once installed, the irrigation controllers delivered substantial and lasting savings. (University of Rochester infographic \/ Michelle Hildreth)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who adopted\u2014and who saved<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The devices appealed most to people who used the most water, with heavy irrigators adopting the device at the highest rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows you to keep the green lawn that you care about.\u201d Brecko says, \u201cBut it might allow you to also contribute to that social goal that we care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once installed, the controllers delivered substantial and lasting savings. Water use dropped by about 26 percent (from a regular irrigation baseline) during shoulder seasons\u2014early spring and fall\u2014when manual systems often overwater because homeowners forget to adjust them. The reductions persisted for nearly four years, the researchers found.<\/p>\n

The lesson, Brecko argues, is not to abandon high-impact solutions, but to sequence and supplement them.<\/div>\n

Among the heaviest irrigators, the water savings were large enough to offset the typical $250 cost of the device in roughly six months. The conserved water alone could cover a household\u2019s annual indoor needs. But just as important, the study found no evidence that smart controllers undermined more aggressive conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t see any difference in turf removal rates,\u201d Brecko says. \u201cAnd we see no increases in consumption among non-irrigator households.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, harm reduction did not \u201ccannibalize abstinence,\u201d the duo writes.<\/p>\n

A middle road for climate behavior<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For policymakers, the findings challenge the all-or-nothing approach that often dominates environmental messaging. The most effective solution\u2014to simply rip out the lawn\u2014will never appeal to everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy initial inclination is to say everyone should do the thing that\u2019s most powerful,\u201d Brecko says. \u201cBut the thing is, we all have really different preferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some people care deeply about conservation, others may have competing priorities and care more about their yard\u2019s aesthetics, their kids\u2019 being able to play on grass, or the curb appeal of their home. Stigmatizing the latter group or ignoring their strong preferences, can leave them unnecessarily out of conservation efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that those high users don\u2019t care about conservation, it\u2019s just that they might care about something else more,\u201d says Brecko. \u201cIf you don\u2019t engage them, they might do nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lesson, she argues, is not to abandon high-impact solutions, but to sequence and supplement them. If you want people who use the most water to conserve, you may have to let them keep what they love, while reducing the shared costs of doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey get the thing that they care about,\u201d Brecko says. \u201cAnd you, as the conservation-oriented person, get the conservation, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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