Households and the Environment Survey, 2015 [Canada]

The Households and the Environment Survey (HES) was conducted from October 2015 to January 2016 as a supplement to the Canadian Community Health Survey. The survey was designed to specifically address the needs of its funding source the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) project, a joint venture between Statistics Canada, Environment Canada and Health Canada. The CESI project reports annually on air quality, water quality and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada using indicators to identify areas of importance to Canadians and monitor progress. The HES was first conducted in 1991, 1994 and more recently in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013. The 2015 survey offers an expanded view on household behaviours that relate to the environment but allows for comparisons with the 1994 survey for some indicators and most of the indicators from the 2006-2013 surveys. The objective of the survey is to provide context to scientific measures of air and water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions, by gaining a better understanding of household behaviour and practices with respect to the environment. Since the HES was first conducted in 1991, environmental priorities and concerns have changed for Canadians. Changes in environmental practices and behaviours are reflective of these growing concerns. In order to gauge these changes, the HES measures some of the same environmental variables that were measured by the HES in previous cycles; however other environmental practices have been measured as well.