If You Build It, Will they Come? Lessons Learned for Implementing the GND at the Household Level

Paul C. Stern, Kimberly S. Wolske, and Thomas Dietz

The Green New Deal (GND) has multiple objectives: to reduce stress on the environment, create jobs, increase well-being, and reduce economic inequality.  We focus here on the GND’s environmental objectives—such as shifting to 100% carbon-free energy, increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and equipment, and transitioning to zero-emission vehicles and clean public transportation systems. Some of these objectives can be partially met through policies focused on industry (e.g., renewable portfolio standards and mandated efficiency standards). But the full potential of the GND will only be realized if millions of households change their behavior. That is, consumers must willingly retrofit their homes, replace less-efficient vehicles and equipment for cleaner options, and switch to public transportation once new systems are built.

Why Behavioral Issues are Important

Too often policies assume that merely introducing a new technology and/or providing financial incentives for its adoption will be sufficient to promote large scale change. As past experience shows, this is not always the case. Sometimes programs see rapid adoption, e.g. “Cash for Clunkers.”  Sometimes adoption is frustratingly slow, as with uptake of home weatherization incentives.  The design of programs matters—and greatly influences how target audiences respond.

Below are some research-based design principles, informed by past efforts to promote adoption of environmentally protective technologies and behaviors, that can help the GND avoid common pitfalls and achieve environmental goals with the speed needed.  The guidance these principles provide will have to be melded with the context-specific knowledge of administrators and target groups in both the public and private sectors when applied to Green New Deal initiatives. But these design principles provide a starting point for effective implementation.

1. Prioritize actions with high cumulative impact, also considering the feasibility of adoption.  Adopting low-carbon technologies – such as energy-efficient heating and cooling equipment or rooftop solar usually has greater impact over the lifespan of the technologies than changes in daily actions, such as resetting thermostats.  Long-term investments, such as in urban infrastructure and mass transit, may have even higher long-run impact if used as intended.  But policy initiatives should be prioritized by considering the likelihood that they will be implemented and the probability of success if implemented.  Emphasis should go first to high-impact, high probability-of-success actions.  

• Provide sufficient financial incentives, but also look for ways to reduce major nonfinancial barriers to change.  Prices matter, but they are not all that matter.  Consumers also need information about nonfinancial attributes of choice.  For rooftop solar, information about long-term performance and effects on home appearance and value; for electric vehicles (EVs), about convenience of recharging and need for repairs. In three studies of home weatherization programs, identical financial incentives had impacts that varied by a factor of 10 depending on how the programs were implemented. 

• Attend to the two steps of technology adoption. The first step is to give an option serious attention; the second is to act.  Homeowners may not even consider rooftop solar or EVs until a neighbor adopts them.  Even with strong financial incentives, smart marketing can make a huge difference in getting target actors to seriously consider adoption.  Mass media marketing can help, but informal marketing through local leaders and trusted community organizations is very important, as is targeting “early adopters” who can market by example and by communicating with their peers.  Leveraging local “opinion leaders” may be especially important for engaging low-income or disadvantaged communities that may distrust outside marketers or program administrators. The GND can incentivize technology suppliers to apply these insights.

• Make adoption processes user-friendly to increase program effectiveness.  This is especially critical because households often lack time and resources for gathering information specific to their choices (e.g., about performance and maintenance of solar panels at their locations, about the cost savings and changes in comfort that come with weatherization).  To do this, provide target actors with valid information from credible sources at points of decision, focus marketing on the times and places of decision, and engage the people who interact directly with the target decision makers.  Programs should also be designed to make benefits immediate and easy to obtain:  instant rebates are more effective than mail-in ones, which in turn are more effective than tax credits or loan-based programs.  This insight can be applied to any consumers for whom information processing is a key barrier to action.  Government action can help make valid and credible information more accessible and can incentivize private and nonprofit actors to do the same.

• Provide credible quality assurance, especially with new technologies such as residential solar, to satisfy potential adopters that they will get the promised benefits.  This may be done, for example, by certifying technology and service providers and offering or incentivizing contractual guarantees of performance for new technologies.

Administrative Challenges in Policy Implementation

How will these design principles get translated into policy? Applying these insights will require attention to the specific needs for and barriers to action for specific kinds of consumers with specific choices of goods and services and also to issues facing their suppliers. Usually it is important to engage in discussions with target audiences to get their insight in designing programs.  Such engagement, if done carefully, can lead to insights that improve program design and build trust.

As public administrators design programs to implement the GND, they can apply these broad design principles to make programs more successful.  Of course, they should blend these principles with their own knowledge to adapt them to local contexts.  For example, the policies and infrastructure needed to increase use of EVs, bicycles or public transportation will vary from place to place even if the same principles apply.   Drawing on multiple kinds of expertise in a co-design, including not just public administration but also insights from target communities and potential private-sector collaborators can help hone programs and policies.  For solar energy and low emissions transportation systems, for example, the US and state-level departments of energy could create policy advisory groups under the GND consisting of technology experts, marketers, consumers, and suppliers to codesign programs to speed adoption.

Paul C. Stern is the President of the Social and Environmental Research Institute and was, until retirement, director of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Kimberly S. Wolske is a Research Associate (Assistant Professor) at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

Thomas Dietz is a University Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy at Michigan State University.