Planning home energy retrofit in a social environment:The role of perceived descriptive and injunctive social norms

In the built environment, improving the energy efficiency of existing building stock through retrofitting is the top pillar to mitigate climate change. Despite the efforts made by local authorities to provide technical and financial supports, the home energy retrofit rate remains low. This study aims to improve the understanding of how homeowners make their energy retrofit plans in a social environment, thereby informing behavioural policy (re)design. Using a sample of inexperienced retrofitters among Dutch homeowners (N = 556), we investigate the relationship between perceived social norms and energy retrofit plans. The results show that homeowners who perceive a positive injunctive norm have an 11.8 percentage point higher probability of making a home energy retrofit plan compared to those with a non-positive perception. Perceived injunctive norms are also significantly associated with the number of planned retrofit measures and aligned with multiple direct barriers and motivations for retrofitting. However, perceived descriptive norms are only associated with the number of planned retrofit measures, and are even correlated with stronger perceived barriers. We conclude by discussing different social influence pathways of descriptive and injunctive norms, as well as the potential of leveraging social norms as a behavioural policy intervention to promote home energy retrofit.</p

Challenges in delivering green building projects: unearthing the transaction costs (TCs)

Delivering green building (GB) projects involve some activities that are atypical in comparison with conventional buildings. Such new activities are characterized by uncertainty, and they incur hidden costs that have not been expected nor are they readily appreciated among the stakeholders. This paper develops a typology and chronology to examine the new activities that are associated with transaction costs (TCs) in the real estate development process (REDP) of green building. Through in-depth interviews with representatives from the major developers in Hong Kong who have experiences in GB practice, this study aims to unearth TCs involved at the critical stages of the REDP. Apart from reconfirming the early project planning stage as the most critical in the consideration of TCs, the study results also identified “extra legal liability risk of the GB product” as the major concern for any GB developer in Hong Kong. The key additional activities that bring significant TCs in developing GB are identified and compared to their traditional counterparts. In turn, project managers not only have to pursue overall cost management whilst winning more business, but they also have to pay particular attention to sustainability in order to minimize hidden societal costs. The study also provides a reference for governments and professionals that will aid in forming policy as well as advance the practice of the GB market by optimizing the societal costs

An Alternative Model to Determine the Financing Structure of PPP-Based Young Graduate Apartments in China: A Case Study of Hangzhou

Public-private partnerships (PPP) can be employed to provide public rental housing for young graduates, which has been urgent to achieve social sustainability in China. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the financing structure of PPPs, particularly the ratio of private investment, which is important in initiating a PPP project. This study develops a robust model to determine the financing structure through considering the uncertainties in operation. A case study in Hangzhou demonstrates the process of the model. The relevant findings provide private investors and the local government with effective references for negotiating the financing structure of a PPP project

Building Energy Efficiency (BEE) policy in the transitional China-An Overview

China's future energy consumption in the building sector will have considerable influence on both China and the world energy markets. Building activities undertaken in China will have a significant influence on the global effort to reduce the growth, and the absolute quantity of greenhouse gas emissions. Energy policy plays an important role in China's sustainable development. In the building sector, government has implemented a great many of policies to improve energy efficiency. However, in the last 3 decades, these policies are designed and adjusted with a purpose to echo the economy status and national situation in each of stage in China. With reference to the previous studies on government's roles in promoting BEE (Qian and Chan, 2007, 2010), this paper traced the Building Energy Efficiency (BEE) policies back since 1980s and review the development of the policies^ the transitional China into four stages: Kick-off & demo stage 1980-1994, warming up stage 1995-2001, immediate action stage 2002-2005, and comprehensive promotion stage 2006-till now. The authors provide a broad overview of government involvements relating to energy efficiency issues in the built environment in China. This paper, firstly, introduces the five government's roles in promoting BEE and its market development; secondly, the authors review the key national BEE policies related to the built environment in the past three decades and demonstrate the government's environmental concern and efforts. Discussion on the implementation of the BEE policies and ways to be improved has been carried out. It thus provides a critical overall review and assessment of the policies and programs to understand BEE issues that will contribute to China's energy and economic future.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Real estate developers' concerns about uncertainty in building energy efficiency (BEE) investment-A transaction costs (TCs) perspective

Buildings account for 40% of global energy consumption and nearly one-third of global CO2 emissions; and the resulting carbon footprint significantly exceeds that of all forms of transportation combined. Attractive opportunities exist to reduce buildings' energy use at lower costs and higher returns than in other sectors. This paper analyzes the concerns of uncertainty, in terms of transaction costs, to the real estate developers when they make decisions about investing in Building Energy Efficiency (BEE). To solicit views of developers regarding BEE investment, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 executives and architects who work in big real estate development firms covering 80% of real estate activities in Hong Kong. This research applies transaction cost economics (TCE) to study the underlying reasons resulting from uncertainty that cause market reluctance to accept BEE by choice. It provides a detailed analysis of the current situation and future prospects for BEE adoption through studying the impacts from three aspects: economic, market and policy uncertainties. It delineates the market and suggests possible policy solutions to overcome the uncertainties and to attain the large-scale deployment of energy-efficient building techniques. The findings establish the groundwork for future studies on how to choose a particular policy package and what roles government should play to solve the existing problems in BEE development.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Homeowners' Decisions Towards Energy Renovations - Critical Stages and Sources of Information

The European Commission aims to decrease GHG emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 (EU, 2017). The housing stock has a considerable share that equals to 40% of energy consumption and 36% of emissions in the EU. The current research aims to evaluate the homeowners’ energy renovation decisions on the exterior, interior, and insulation/installation of their house. The householders’ renovation decisions are analyzed with regards to (1) which stages to help/support and (2) what information is essential in the renovation process. Considering the extent of difficulty for private homeowners’ in accessing information and complexity in conducting the renovation, transaction cost (TC) theory is applied in understanding the decisions. The data has been collected through a survey among 3,776 of the Dutch homeowners in 2012. Then, statistical and logistic regression analysis has been conducted to analyze the renovation decisions for two groups of homeowners: renovators and potential renovators. According to the results and the outcomes of this study: (1) For the renovators: (a) the main identified stages in getting help are in carrying out the renovation, determining the costs, and looking for the reliable professional/ contractor, (b) the main identified sources of information are at the maintenance/ installation companies, family/ friends, and via internet; (2) For the potential renovators: (a) the main identified help stages are in determining the costs, looking for a reliable professional and carrying out the renovation/ improvement, (b) the main identified sources of information are via the internet, by a maintenance/ installation companies, and family/ friends. The main difference among the renovators is for insulation/ installation. The most significant stage in getting help for insulation/installation is to find out the most efficient solutions. Similar results have been found for the potential renovators; the only difference was in the order of the influencing factors

How transaction costs affect real estate developers entering into the building energy efficiency (BEE) market?

Buildings consume a major proportion of the electricity power in most cities, thus promoting building energy efficiency (BEE) will directly contribute to low carbon cities. Some studies suggest that the additional investment on BEE should be well paid off by higher selling prices or more savings in term of life cycle costing. Real estate developers are profit driven and working in a competitive environment. However, it appears that real estate developers are skeptical in entering the BEE market, which requires alternate theories to explain their behaviors. In this study, we attempt incorporating transaction cost economics (TCE) and game theoretical frameworks into the analysis. It suggests that the anticipated transaction costs entailed in the provision of BEE products due to such factors as bounded rationality, opportunism and contractual hazards, combined with the asymmetrical information in the BEE market have curtailed the developers' interests. This study also leads to suggesting some policy recommendations to induce the developers entering into the BEE market by reducing the transaction costs. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex