Incentivizing Energy Efficiency In Public Buildings Through Information Disclosure: North Carolina Community Colleges As Case Study
Abstract
The energy efficiency gap, which describes the difference between current and socially
optimal levels of energy efficiency, has persisted for decades, even as our nation’s
energy intensity has improved. Economics literature tends to focus on informational,
behavioral, and large-scale market failures when positing the causes of the gap.
However, state and local policy failures may greatly contribute to the gap as well.
Information disclosure policies are particularly well suited to narrow the energy
efficiency gap, because they cost-effectively address behavioral and informational
failures and can be easily implemented on the local level. The Federal Government
has utilized such policies to vastly improve the energy efficiency of its buildings’
stock, but state and local governments have been slow to follow suit. This Master’s
project investigates the potential of utilizing information disclosure policies to
narrow the energy efficiency gap in public buildings at the local level by analyzing
the North Carolina Community College System as a case study.
First, analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory, the archetypal environmental information
disclosure policy in the United States, yields recommendations for incentivizing energy
efficiency in public buildings. Next, a comparative analysis of energy consumption
in South Carolina Technical Colleges reveals that the potential for cost-effective,
near-term energy efficiency investments in North Carolina Community Colleges could
yield annual savings of ~$5 Million. Finally, lessons are drawn from South Carolina’s
early adoption of information disclosure policies to yield concluding recommendations
for bolstering information disclosure policies in North Carolina. Stronger information
disclosure policies coupled with polices that rectify local policy failures could
better incentivize energy efficiency in North Carolina’s Community College buildings.
Type
Master's projectSubject
information disclosurebuilding energy labeling
energy efficiency
community colleges
Toxics Release Inventory
incentives
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2252Citation
Jackson, Charles (2010). Incentivizing Energy Efficiency In Public Buildings Through Information Disclosure:
North Carolina Community Colleges As Case Study. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2252.Collections
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Rights for Collection: Nicholas School of the Environment