How does electricity consumption behavior change with different energy sources? We seek to understand how consumers change their consumption behaviors when they begin to use renewable electricity via a community solar program. Previous research has found that consumers distinguish the power sources of electricity and even change their consumption behavior. Recent studies have explored changes in consumption associated with utility-run green electricity programs and rooftop solar, finding mixed results; however, studies on community solar programs are lacking. This study explores household-level consumption behavior after adopting solar electricity without panel installation. We use household-level monthly electricity consumption data from a large electric co-op in Georgia, U.S., ranging from 2015 to 2023, for both community solar subscribers and non-subscribers. We use staggered difference-in-differences, along with matching, to compare consumption changes before and after the subscription. Findings reveal that the consumption does not change after subscription, but subscribers' monthly bills increase by about 3-4 %, indicating they pay more to make the grid greener. This study will broaden the understanding of electricity sources and consumer behavior by adding the analysis of prevalent but under-studied community solar electricity programs in the U.S. Southeast context. It will help utility planners understand the changing demand as a result of renewable energy adoption.

The automotive industry’s shift to electric vehicles (EVs) faces persistent barriers in pricing, financing, and charging infrastructure, particularly affecting low-income and disadvantaged individuals. These hurdles pose challenges to achieving US decarbonization goals and hinder the development of a sustainable and electrified transportation sector. Global disruptions in the supply chain, driven by the pandemic and geopolitical tensions, exacerbate these challenges, keeping EV purchase prices elevated. Key disruptors include critical mineral scarcity, semiconductor shortages, and international trade and COVID-19-related restrictions, complicating efforts to overcome adoption hurdles. Conducting a systematic review using Google Scholar and ScienceDirect, we focused on articles related to EV supply chain disruptions, equity, and adoption barriers published in English post-2009. We analyzed 130 articles for topical focus and key findings. Our exploration reveals insights into the challenges of electrifying the transportation sector while addressing equity concerns. Proposing a systemic equity framework, we advocate for the simultaneous and effective administration of resources, policies, and cultural considerations for systematically marginalized communities. This holistic approach aims to navigate the complexities of the EV supply chain, fostering a future marked by equitable transport electrification. The intersection of equity issues with supply chain challenges emphasizes the timeliness and importance of this academic examination. Our contribution to the ongoing discourse on achieving a sustainable and inclusive transition to EVs delves into the dynamics of these challenges, highlighting the need for comprehensive solutions.

Policy diffusion is an important element of the policy formation process. However, understanding of the micro-level interactions governing policy spread remains limited. Much of the literature focuses on macro-level proxies for intergovernmental connectivity. These proxies outline broad diffusion patterns without specifying the micro-level mechanisms that govern how individuals facilitate that diffusion. The role of stakeholders in diffusion in the policy subsystem is also poorly understood. We construct a panel dataset covering the spread of the US ecotourism programs from 1993 to 2016 to investigate how micro-level movement within stakeholder networks explains state-level policy diffusion over time. Using fixed-effects regression, we find that stakeholder movement significantly drives diffusion, acting as a mechanism of knowledge transfer. Our findings provide a more precise theoretical understanding of how policy knowledge diffuses at the micro level, empirically explain the role of policy stakeholders in diffusion, and highlight the value of citizen-science data for policy research.

The COVID-19 crisis demanded rapid, widespread policy action. In response, nations turned to different forms of social distancing policies to reduce the spread of the virus. These policies were implemented globally, proving as contagious as the virus they are meant to prevent. Yet, variation in their implementation invites questions as to how and why countries adopt social distancing policies, and whether the causal mechanisms driving these policy adoptions are based on internal resources and problem conditions or other external factors such as conditions in other countries. We leverage daily changes in international social distancing policies to understand the impacts of problem characteristics, institutional and economic context, and peer effects on social distancing policy adoption. Using fixed-effects models on an international panel of daily data from 2020, we find that peer effects, particularly mimicry of geographic neighbors, political peers, and language agnates drive policy diffusion and shape countries' policy choices.

A growing number of companies have made climate pledges, joining organizations such as Science Based Targets, to demonstrate their commitment to emissions reductions. There is uncertainty as to whether these pledges are merely symbolic declarations or lead to substantive results. Furthermore, the environmental management literature does not differentiate symbolic from substantive climate action consistently, which presents challenges towards understanding the role and effects of climate pledges. We address this gap with a systematic literature review that compiles definitions of symbolic and substantive action, synthesizing them into a new conceptual model. We propose three main components that distinguish symbolic from substantive action: results (whether company action led to tangible emissions reductions or operational changes), effort (whether changes were superficial or extensive), and intent (whether the company was genuinely committed to climate performance as opposed to social expectations for compliance). Future studies could analyze the relationship between these three components, such as how symbolic vs. substantive intent translates into the type of effort and results realized by a company. Doing so would allow policymakers to understand why companies engage in climate pledges and the factors that influence their success or lack thereof.

We use household-level data to explore residential electricity use patterns following installation of solar panels. Solar adoption leads to an increase in total electricity consumption relative to a matched non-adopting control group. Our point estimate translates to a rebound effect of 28.5%, suggesting that nearly a third of the electricity produced by a customer's solar panels is used for increased energy services, rather than reduced grid electricity consumption. We explore several potential drivers of an increase in electricity consumption. These results have important implications for electricity planning and policy, suggesting that rooftop solar stimulates additional demand for electricity.

Since the Energy Policy Act of 1992, federal facilities have increasingly used performance contracting to finance energy and water efficiency measures. Utility Energy Performance Contracts (UESCs) have received less attention despite having similar goals and processes as Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs). This paper provides a comparison between the two performance contracting models and highlights the tradeoffs that should be considered. Higher costs observed in ESPCs are driven by higher overhead and the costs of savings guarantees. These cost drivers cascade into longer financing terms and higher interest rates. These results suggest that federal agencies should explore UESCs as a potentially more cost-effective way to achieve energy savings improvements.

This book develops a path to decarbonization through a process of Green Market Transformation. Matisoff and Noonan assess the scope and impact of the green building movement, which is working towards decarbonizing a sector that accounts for more than a third of global carbon emissions. They describe the role of the movement in addressing sustainability challenges within the building and construction sector, and suggest new ways of marshalling markets through the voluntary efforts of industry to shift society towards a better future. Matisoff and Noonan tell the success story of green industry, seen through the lens of green buildings and ecolabels. By combining case studies with recent interdisciplinary scholarship, the authors provide a compelling narrative of the opportunities and limitations of reliance on voluntary approaches to regulation.

Subnational entities are recognizing the need to systematically examine options for reducing their carbon footprints. However, few robust and comprehensive analyses are available that lay out how US states and regions can most effectively contribute. This paper describes an approach developed for Georgia—a state in the southeastern United States called “Drawdown Georgia”, our research involves (1) understanding Georgia’s baseline carbon footprint and trends, (2) identifying the universe of Georgia-specific carbon-reduction solutions that could be impactful by 2030, (3) estimating the greenhouse gas reduction potential of these high-impact 2030 solutions for Georgia, and (4) estimating associated costs and benefits while also considering how the solutions might impact societal priorities, such as economic development opportunities, public health, environmental benefits, and equity. We began by examining the global solutions identified by Project Drawdown. The resulting 20 high-impact 2030 solutions provide a strategy for reducing Georgia’s carbon footprint in the next decade using market-ready technologies and practices and including negative emission solutions. This paper describes our systematic and replicable process and ends with a discussion of its strengths, weaknesses, and planned future research.

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) implemented a programmatic agreement as green tape to streamline environmental review and decrease project durations. We investigate the implementation and outcomes associated with this streamlining initiative to examine whether it functions as green tape and investigate whether it improves performance by reducing project durations. We use a mixed-methods approach, using qualitative analysis to explore green tape perceptions of project team members and a quasi-experimental, instrumental variable approach to estimate the time-savings the created for a sample of 397 infrastructure projects. Our results reveal the streamlining initiative operates as green tape and demonstrate the substantial performance gains green tape can yield. These findings suggest that streamlining one project discipline impacts performance across the entire project, creating substantial time savings. Furthermore, they demonstrate how green tape functions in diverse project teams and can be applied in public agencies to create performance gains in infrastructure project delivery.

Localized carbon reduction strategies are especially critical in states and regions that lack top-down climate leadership. This paper illustrates the use of coupled systems in assessments of sub-national climate solutions with a case study of Georgia, a state located in the southeastern United States that does not have statewide climate goals or plans. The paper illustrates how robust place-specific plans for climate action could be derived from foundational global and national work and by embedding that research into the context of socio-ecological-technological systems. Our replicable methodology advances the traditional additive sectoral wedge analysis of carbon abatement potential by incorporating solution interdependencies and by spanning both carbon sources and sinks. We estimate that a system of 20 solutions could cut Georgia's carbon footprint by 35% in 2030 relative to a business-as-usual forecast and by 50% relative to Georgia's emissions in 2005. We also produce a carbon abatement cost curve that aligns private and social costs as well as benefits with units of avoided CO2-e. The solutions are affiliated with various social co-costs and co-benefits that highlight societal concerns extending beyond climate impacts, including public health, environmental quality, employment, and equity.

This chapter seeks to explain the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from an environmental policy perspective. The chapter details three perspectives on why firms might pursue beyond compliance or CSR behavior. These include a strategic model, a stakeholder model, and a market barrier model of CSR. Following these models, there are several conditions and pathways for successful CSR. These include a strong regulatory threat, the ability to market to and signal stakeholders, and the ability to find low-cost opportunities for environmental improvement. Barriers to achieving these include competitive disadvantages in competitive markets, a lack of prices on environmental externalities, and the potential for greenwashing. The chapter synthesizes innovative opportunities for CSR, detailing new trends in certified B Corporations, sustainability reporting, social enterprises, and cooperative ownership. The chapter concludes with directions for future academic research.

Pilot and demonstration (P&D) projects are commonly deployed to catalyze early adoption of technology but are poorly understood in terms of mechanism and impact. We conceptually distinguish unique functions of pilots and demonstrations, then examine whether they accelerate adoption in the case of green building technology. To identify effects on adoption, we develop a difference-in-difference-in-differences strategy, exploiting variation in timing, location, and technologies of green building P&Ds. Results indicate local quarterly green building adoption rates double following completion of a P&D project. Further analyses examine mechanisms driving this effect. The results suggest green building demonstration projects create learning externalities, proliferating technology diffusion in local markets and through building owner networks. Together, these results suggest that investments in P&D projects by public and private actors can lower costs for subsequent adoption.

Rapidly changing economics, customer preferences, and policy to address climate change and local environmental pollutants have driven increased deployment of a wide range of distributed energy resources in the U.S. electricity system. Distributed energy resources have enabled an expanded role for energy consumers and non-utility third parties to reshape system costs, drawing renewed attention to the potential of reforming electricity rate design based on the further application of cost-causal principals to improve overall system fairness and efficiency. One mechanism to move toward greater application of cost-causal rate design is dynamic pricing, which varies electricity prices across time and location to reflect costs of providing electricity to consumers under specific market conditions and grid operation conditions. While dynamic electricity pricing has penetrated some markets, and it has not been widely implemented, particularly for residential consumers. In this review article, we provide a brief summary of electricity rate design, including the possibility of introducing dynamic prices, and explain why dynamic prices are more reflective of the short-run marginal costs of electricity supply than volumetric rates. We then explore the barriers to the widespread adoption of residential dynamic pricing, emphasizing technical, economic, and political challenges. Our assessment reflects the ability of dynamic prices to engender more equitable and efficient outcomes by achieving the goal of cost-causality, and we argue that a move toward more dynamic pricing can constitute a welfare improvement over volumetric rates. However, dynamic pricing does not completely address the full set of challenges associated with rate design and, alone, is unlikely to enable the full recovery of fixed costs and the fair attribution of the positive and negative externalities of electricity provision. Therefore, electricity rate design requires tradeoffs, making it as much an art as a science. This analysis synthesizes literature across multiple fields and suggests avenues for further research.

Does voluntary participation in eco-certification become more substantive over time, or less? Although past research on voluntary programs suggests that later participants are more likely to greenwash by only symbolically adopting voluntary standards, theories of regulatory competition suggest a possible "race to the top." We argue that participation in voluntary programs can facilitate competition that enables a race, and we advance a theory of self-regulatory competition to explain dynamics of participation in voluntary environmental programs. Under this perspective, environmental self-regulation may facilitate a race to the top, despite possibilities for purely symbolic adoption. Analyzing data from a voluntary green building certification program in the United States, we introduce a methodology to distinguish propensities for symbolic certification from more substantive environmental performance. Data demonstrate that later adopters invest additional resources to attain higher certification, becoming greener and suggesting a race to the top in a voluntary greenbuilding certification program.

The COVID-19 crisis has demanded rapid, widespread policy action. In response, nations turned to social distancing policies to reduce the spread of the virus. These policies were implemented globally, proving as contagious as the virus they are meant to prevent. Yet variation in their implementation invites questions as to how and why countries adopt social distancing policies, and whether the causal mechanisms driving these policy adoptions are based on internal resources and problem conditions or other external factors such as conditions in other countries. We leverage daily changes in international social distancing policies to understand the impacts of problem characteristics, institutional and economic context, and peer effects on social distancing policy adoption. Using fixed-effects models on an international panel of daily data from 2020, we find that peer effects, particularly mimicry of geographic neighbors, political peers, and language agnates drive policy diffusion and shape countries’ policy choices.