This online experiment tested various ways in which sustainability measures for homeowners are presented on the website verbeterjehuis.nl, ‘improve your home’. The variant emphasising that the sustainability measures are 'recommended for your personal situation' proved to be most effective. This addition acts as an incentive to homeowners to install roof insulation or adopt other sustainability measures.

Why this experiment was conducted: verbeterjehuis.nl website optimisation
Homeowners can perform an online improvement check on verbeterjehuis.nl to find out about sustainability options for their home. This check consists of two parts. After entering various features and characteristics of their home, they will receive a QuickScan recommending measures that they can still take in their home, including the cost of and benefit they can expect from each measure. Next, they can enter more detailed information about their home for a more in-depth overview of sustainability measures. They are then sent three sustainability packages tailored to their situation (SmartTwin). In this study, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy sought to examine how the website can motivate homeowners to actively select these options.

Types of intervention: variants with behavioural techniques
The behavioural study involved testing various interventions. In the case of the QuickScan, the following 5 intervention variants were tested:
• the control variant with the original version of the website
• a step-by-step plan on implementing the sustainability measure
• a tip on how to receive additional subsidy if they implement two sustainability measures
• information on cost savings after 5 years
• individually tailored information: 'recommended for your personal situation'.

In the case of the SmartTwin tool, the following five intervention variants were tested:
• the control variant with the original version of the website
• package names and stars: Goed begin (a good start), Goed op weg (well on track) and Klaar voor de toekomst (ready for the future)
• expected energy label for the home after implementing the measures
• contribution to increased home value
• information on cost savings after 5 years

Result obtained: personalisation has a positive impact
The respondents who were presented with the personalised variant of the QuickScan were more likely to say they were likely or very likely to fit roof insulation than those presented with the control group variant (45% versus 32%). For this group, there was also a significant effect on the likelihood of them implementing other sustainability measures (55% versus 42%). The respondents also reported that having been presented with this personalised variant, they rated the information as more appealing and easy to comprehend. For the other variants of the QuickScan and the SmartTwin tool, there were no significant differences compared to the control variants.

Impact: personalisation implemented on website
The variant emphasising that the sustainability measures are 'recommended for your personal situation' proved to be most effective. This variant has now been implemented on the verbeterjehuis.nl website. Homeowners who previously implemented sustainability measures are more likely to take further measures. This underscores the importance of starting: once people start, they are more likely to go on to do more.

Source: https://www.binnl.nl/home+-+en/knowledge/publications/bin+nl+publications/HandlerDownloadFiles.ashx?idnv=2719979