The federal government has paid virtually no attention to the energy-related social sciences, yet the energy savings achievable through behavioral changes and the adoption of existing technologies are in many cases larger, cheaper, and more immediate than those achievable through further technology development, at least in the near term.
This level of reduction equates to 7. Notably, the analysis included only interventions that are currently and broadly available, are low- to no-cost, and do not require major lifestyle changes. Even greater reductions could be achieved through actions that require greater lifestyle adjustments, such as living closer to work or telecommuting, and through the adoption of novel technologies that are currently on the verge of mass-market penetration, such as heat-pump water heating and air conditioning.
The study also did not include the emissions savings achievable through federally mandated improvements in the energy efficiency of appliances and lighting use, such as the phase-out of inefficient light bulbs stipulated by Congress in the Energy Independence and Security Act of Indeed, the emissions savings achievable through new energy-efficiency regulations could equal those possible through behavioral interventions.
Achieving these results will require developing more effective strategies to promote the adoption of energy-efficient technologies and practices. Up-front cost is a major barrier to the adoption of more-efficient technologies, and this consideration often outweighs the potential for long-term savings in consumer decisionmaking processes.
On the behavioral side, barriers to household actions include existing regulations, infrastructure issues, limited consumer choice, and a lack of information about the energy and cost savings achievable through behavioral changes.
To overcome current barriers, behavioral interventions will need to be coupled with properly designed policies aimed at facilitating their adoption. Drawing on 30 years of social science research on consumer behavior and decisionmaking, the researchers who conducted the study developed six design principles for effective technology deployment programs. First, outreach programs should focus on the actions and technologies that are likely to have the greatest impact; that is, those with the most technical potential and the greatest potential to change behaviors and attitudes among the largest number of individuals.
Third, an effective marketing campaign must be put into action. Fourth, credible and accessible information must be made available to the consumer. Fifth, participation in the program must be simple and easy. Finally, a trustworthy quality-control mechanism must be in place to ensure that products and services meet expectations. Nearly , cars were scrapped in only two months.
In contrast, although the financial incentives for participation in ARRA-funded weatherization and energy efficiency tax credit programs are generous, these programs often suffer from poor marketing, delayed incentives, burdensome paperwork, and uncertain product quality.
Greater attention should be paid to addressing these barriers by applying existing behavioral and social science research to energy policy and by fostering new research on a number of critical questions. The most productive strategy will be to identify and promote the behaviors and technologies that can have the greatest impact on energy consumption and simultaneously to address the many barriers to these choices through major outreach campaigns.
The failure to fulfill any of the six stated principles can block progress, yet many programs focus on satisfying only one or two tenets and thus do not gain much headway at the consumer level.
As President Clinton suggested, simply providing consumers with pertinent information on energy savings, though important, is not sufficient to effect change. Cash for Clunkers unintentionally illustrated the difficulty of achieving cost-effective emissions reductions through financial incentives.
To be sure, a primary goal of the program was to rescue the U. Their resistance runs counter to rational economic thought, because the extra cost of efficiency technologies, such as hybrid gas-electric power trains, can be recouped over time through lifetime fuel savings, even without taking into account vehicle purchasing credits and other incentives.
Barriers to greater acceptance include the difficulty of estimating fuel savings, the inherent complexity of the process of purchasing vehicles, and the many competing attributes that consumers look for in a vehicle, such as body styling, safety appliances, and luxury features. A further barrier is the huge variability in fuel savings across hybrid vehicle models. Not all hybrids are the same.
In many cases, the greater fuel efficiency of hybrid gas-electric engines has been used to boost engine horsepower rather than to improve fuel economy, as measured by miles traveled per gallon of gas.
Compounding the problem, it does not appear that federal income tax incentives for purchasing cars that are more efficient have been effective, due to delayed and uncertain returns. A Harvard Kennedy School study of U.
Social preferences, most notably environmentalism, and access to high-occupancy vehicle lanes were also found to be significant factors in consumer adoption. Consumers often turn to trusted acquaintances, such as friends and neighbors, for information on the comparative benefits of energy-efficiency improvements. Social networks and early technology adopters are thus important mechanisms by which accurate information on energy efficiency is disseminated within neighborhoods and other social circles.
To continue with the hybrid car example, social norms have proven essential to the diffusion of hybrid vehicle technology. Strikingly, only the Prius among hybrid cars showed such a large positive correlation with political affiliation. In an intriguing survey of hybrid vehicle owners that deals a blow to economic rationality, Ken Kurani and Thomas Turrentine of the University of California at Davis found not a single household that analyzed its fuel costs in a systematic way, and almost none that factored gasoline costs into the household budget.
Oxford and Cambridge have become hotspots thanks to start-ups emerging from the universities, and demand is likely to spill over into the corridor between the two cities, to places such as Milton Keynes.
The Treasury recognises the huge economic potential of this new region, dubbed the Oxbridge Growth Corridor, and is supporting infrastructure projects to connect Cambridge and Oxford with a new road and railway by The latest research carried out by Bidwells , and YouGov found that for companies, in general, the key consideration in deciding on the location was the ease with which they could recruit and retain staff.
The quest for talent also drives demand for accessible city locations; in fact, public transport hubs were, on average, valued by respondents above all other facilities. The proximity to universities and other centres of research excellence was also key.
The research also found that occupiers place great weight on the physical aspects of the location, including factors such as data capacity and the availability of suitable property in which to grow and expand, as well as local amenities. This is crucial to the quest for innovation. In contrast, the cost of space was a relatively low consideration for businesses, and this is evident in rental trends in key centres of science and tech growth such as Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes where talent and research innovation are prioritised.
That said, different parts of the sector highlighted different concerns, showing the need to understand the underlying businesses and the sectors they operate in. At the start of their journey, companies tend to prefer flexible space but want to know that in time they can grow into new properties. For landlords, it is critical to have the foresight to see their journey through.
The key is to unpick what specification companies want and understand that what appears to be extremely specialist might not be.
It is possible to decrease the risk in a property by knowing that the fitout could be used by other companies if the original tenant leaves and this could help avoid costly reinstatement work. In many ways, the physical building is the easy part: what science and tech companies want is a culture of collaboration. At Cambridge Science Park, for example, a gaming company is working closely with a large pharmaceutical firm to create technology that children can use to help them remember to take their insulin.
It is therefore important to remain open to the uses of any particular location: there is likely to be a lot of cross-pollination between different parts of the sector, as opposed to locations existing as purely a life science or tech park, for example, as well as a significant crossover between the office and industrial sectors. It is crucial to engender that environment for collaboration and make places that people can mix and talk, creating a heartbeat for the area.
At Cambridge Science Park, the addition of a co-working centre has allowed smaller companies to engage with the wider community, sharing space with other businesses to learn and grow. People work in all sorts of different places, and therefore the common parts are incredibly important, whether that is coffee shops, restaurants or benches around a lake.
Another potential barrier to investment is a lack of understanding of tenant covenants. They probably have money in the bank from a venture capitalist, but perhaps do not report any revenue because they are at the stage of developing an idea rather than selling it.
Finding out who is behind the company, who are they linked with and who is backing them could provide more certainty about their long-term prospects. It is possible to do that work and conclude that although a potential tenant is a new entity, it is not high risk because the area it is involved in is cutting edge and there is a market demand.
Even if you remain unsure, some of the risks can be spread by leasing a multi-let building which may have 20 small tenants. Science and tech may be a relative unknown, but investing in hotels was much the same a decade ago. Also ranking high for all groups Location considerations surveyed was access to skilled labour. All industry groups examined in this The high importance placed on study stated at least moderate agreement technology, innovation, ability to create with the proposition that proximity to new products and services, technology major markets and quality of local advancement and access to skilled suppliers were factors in their decision to labour, again underscores the importance locate in Waterloo Region.
While the stability of the region and information intensive sectors such as can be viewed to be in part a function of insurance, as well as the proximity to government policy and initiatives, the markets in Toronto and the United respondents did not indicate that States, make this an attractive location. All industry groups expressed some level of Cluster characteristics of the Region agreement with the statement that this of Waterloo was a decision criterion. The strongest The underlying assumption is that this is agreement was found to be among the a synergistic collection of industries biotechnology and information which coexist to form a single technology firms.
These sectors have a technology cluster. The previous high reliance on access to highly- examination of specific sectors qualified personnel, and as such draw on reinforces this inter-dependency. This the skilled labour created by these analysis examines the underlying educational institutions.
Methodological details are knowledge, and the degree to which available from the authors. Based on local firms derive competitive advantage this analysis, several factors related to from this knowledge. The second factor which emerges consists of variables associated with the The first of these, and the factor local business environment. It includes explaining the highest percentage of the the reputation of the local region, the variance in the data set, was defined as quality of local suppliers and variables knowledge transfer availability.
This related to the local competitive factor consists of the combination of environment. This factor is defined as variables associated with the local local business environment. The next availability of new technologies for. Table 3. Interestingly, financial implication of sales, access to these factor loadings are negative; markets, and the capacity to introduce indicating that the respondents generally new products.
The factor loadings indicate that as cost and access The fourth factor to emerge from this to skilled labour becomes more of an analysis combines variables related to issue, the impact on cluster performance customer characteristics. This factor is negative. The next factor is defined as aligns with what would be expected Economic Stability, and is self evident: from the Porter diamond model, the economic stability of the region has a specifically demand conditions, in that it positive impact on cluster performance.
The were defined as Branch Operations, variables with the most significant Competitive Advantage Reputation, loading for this factor deal with the local Product Development Behaviour and creation and ongoing development of Government Programs highly qualified personnel.
The negative factor loadings development activities. One indicate that as the firm increasingly interpretation of this is that increased perceives its competitive advantage as outsourcing requires the firm to take being derived from these variables, advantage of and support other local perceived cluster performance decreases.
Product A question that arises is, how well do Development these factors align with what would be expected from the Porter Diamond Behaviour consists of variables related model? The relationships between the to the approach firms take to product components of the Porter Diamond and design, specifically whether they the local cluster factors are illustrated in develop products internally or outsource Figure 3.
Figure 3. Several factors are components. Local Competitive Environment, government component. Similarly, for example, consists of a combination customer characteristics map to demand of variables which describe not only conditions, while factors such as skilled Firm Strategy, Structure and Rivalry, but labour access, knowledge transfer also Related and Supporting Industries.
The results of industry sectors this analysis and the relative magnitude Ultimately we are interested in of the classification model coefficients understanding how the sectors within which resulted are shown in Table 5. The first factor to be considered is To this end, a question of interest is how Knowledge Transfer Availability. In this can we best characterize the industry case it can be seen that the sector that is sectors that comprise this synergistic most characterized by this factor is the cluster?
To examine this question, Bio-technology sector, while this is least Table 5. At first it may seem surprising that characterized by this factor. Economic the Insurance industry sector is relatively Stability most significantly defines the strong with respect to this factor.
Production Technology and Insurance However, this can be explained when one sectors. This would seem to indicate that views this industry as a very information these sectors are the most impacted by intensive and therefore information and economic cycles. In the case of computing technology intensive sector.
In the case of the insurance sector while the other sectors are not industry, they will be impacted both in characterized strongly by this factor. Access to Skilled Labour is a factor that impacts all sectors, with the greatest Customer Characteristics, specifically discrimination seen among the Building demanding and leading edge customers, Services, Information Technology and most strongly defines the Production Production Technology sectors.
The Technology sector, while is least Branch Operations factor has the definitional for the Insurance sector. This greatest descriptive significance among is reasonable given that the Production the Insurance, Information Technology Technology sector is dominated by the and Production Technology sectors.
Technology sector respondents, they are most strongly defined in terms of Branch Local Business Environment appears to Operations, while this is least likely to most strongly define the Building be the case for those respondents in the Services sector while the other sectors Information Technology sector.
Similarly, Government Influence All sectors indicate strong charac- does not emerge as a factor that strongly terization by the perceived Competitive describes any of the sectors under Advantage Reputation provides them.
Biotechnology and Production Technology indicated the strongest The financial success factors on the relative influence due to this factor. The resulting from this factor. The final factor to be considered financial success of firms in the sectors is the influence of Financial Government examined. Other avenues that can have Programs. This factor most strongly positive impacts are through continuing characterizes the Production Technology efforts to strengthen cooperation and and Building Services sectors collaborations among firms, especially as it relates to improved access to Conclusion and implications markets, access and growth of local While support exists for the proposition infrastructure and continuing develop- that firms in the Waterloo Region ment of a skilled labour pool.
The firms sectors examined can benefit the most surveyed tended to perceive that the from efforts to support cluster Waterloo Region benefits from the development. At first glance, it would presence of their respective sectors, appear that the Building Services and however they are less convinced that Insurance sectors have relatively lower they themselves benefit from any local potential for impact from cluster cluster effects.
The sectors with the highest reliance on technology It has been suggested that the presence transfer and research capacity are also of a significant concentration of high those with the greatest potential policy quality knowledge creating organiza- impact. These are Biotechnology, tions is a significant influence on local Information Technology and Production cluster development and evolution.
This Technology respectively. For example, is supported by the findings of this study proximity effects to foster knowledge that highlight the importance to the collaboration among biotechnology region of its education and research firms has been reported Cooke, ; institutions.
Our competitive environment for financial analysis tends to link biotechnology resources is critical to viable cluster development in Waterloo to their creation and evolution. At the sector proximity with and access to university level, local venture capital resources research and to the availability of were not perceived to have a significant specialized facilities e.
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