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Meeting legislation and enhancing reputation: Working within the contextual pressures of regulatory, social, economic and other drivers to reduce building energy consumption

Panel: 2. Energy efficiency policies: What delivers?

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Craig Robertson, UCL Energy Institute, United Kingdom
Dejan Mumovic, Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL, United Kingdom

Abstract

In the UK, like the rest of Europe, a suite of legislation, guidance and incentives has been introduced with the aim of reducing building related carbon emissions. This framework uses a mixture of regulatory and market based levers. Parallel to this statutory framework is a set of drivers generated by social, economic and broader professional responsibilities. These include reputational pressures, personal and organisation ambitions, economic risks and peer pressures. The current study describes this combination influences as the set of ‘contextual pressures’ within which building designers, builders and managers work.

The building procurement process involves the complex interaction of a range of actors with varying and sometimes conflicting responsibilities. This paper explores the way that actors in the design, construction and management industry interact with the contextual pressures throughout building procurement in order to assess the legislative framework. An industry-wide web-based survey was carried out, gathering responses from over five hundred professionals. Seventeen follow up semi-structured interviews were also used to assess how actors respond to the contextual pressures.

The paper identifies where there are contradictions between aspects of the contextual pressures and the aspirations or methods of actors working within them. Identifying these conflicts will give an indication of how legislation might use existing social, reputational or economic levers to better meet commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Suggestions are then made on ways in which legislation could be directed to achieve meaningful reductions in energy consumption.

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Download this paper as pdf: 2-343-13_Robertson.pdf