DE-CARBONIZING NEW HOMES IN NEW JERSEY: REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS AND GREEN HOMEBUILDING DECISIONS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0220815
• Project Start Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2013
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
3 RUTGERS PLZA
NEW BRUNSWICK,NJ 08901-8559

Performing Department
Human Ecology

Non Technical Summary
The state of New Jersey and many of its communities have committed to mitigating its contribution to climate change by limiting its greenhouse gas emissions. In June 2006, the state legislature passed a bill setting a state-wide goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 13% by 2020. In addition, over twenty New Jersey towns have signed on to the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, a voluntary commitment reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 7% below 1990 levels by 2012. In New Jersey, residential homes account for 22% and transportation accounts for 38% of all state energy use and major greenhouse gas emitters (EIA, 2006). While home-owners or renters can make some choices about their energy use, the structural design features of homes (passive solar, solar panels, insulation, lighting and appliances) strongly influence how much energy it uses. In addition, the location of the home influences transportation energy use depending on whether it is close to public transportation or walking distance to work and amenities. Unless building a custom home, homebuyers are left to buy what developers decide to build based on developer's perceptions of consumer interests in location and home features. An increased availability of homes that empower its resident's to use less energy and de-carbonize their energy sources can provide significant energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions. This makes real estate developers particularly powerful decision-makers in determining the lifetime greenhouse gas impacts of a home. This work focuses on New Jersey real estate developer decisions to build homes that meet a variety of requirements and the greenhouse gas impacts of those decisions. It will identify the factors that influence real estate decisions to adopt various climate-friendly building practices as defined by EPA, DOE and USGBC, greenhouse gas impacts of practices, and potential policies to accelerate adoption. The availability of these homes is an important step toward empowering individuals to be able to decrease their carbon footprints in their daily lives. Questions concerning the future residential developments toward low-carbon options are: 1) what factors influence real estate developer's decisions of whether to build a climate-friendly home 2) the energy and greenhouse gas emission impacts of shifting these decisions, and 3) what policies may further shift these decisions. This project will investigate those real estate developers that have participated in various green homes programs, document the reasons for their participation, and model greenhouse gas impacts if these practices were to diffuse more broadly in the development industry.

Animal Health Component

40%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

40%

Applied

40%

Developmental

20%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
133	6040	3080	100%

Knowledge Area
133 - Pollution Prevention and Mitigation;

Subject Of Investigation
6040 - Real estate;

Field Of Science
3080 - Sociology;

Keywords

greenhouse gas impacts

green home building

real estate developers

climate change

leed

energy star

Goals / Objectives
The main objective of this study is to identify factors that can account for heterogeneity in real estate developer decisions to building low-Carbon homes and the greenhouse gas impacts of these decisions. The sub-objectives of the project are to: Document the real estate developer green home-building decision-making process and the actors involved. Identify when decisions to build a home to meet "green" specifications takes place and the factors that account for different decisions to participate and which program to participate in. Develop a model of developer decision-making that links decision-making to greenhouse gas emission outcomes and provides an opportunity to explore changes in the factors that influence decision-making.

Project Methods
This project will start with four case studies of real estate developer decision-making regarding a new home development in process or recently built. Two firms will be a small to medium size firm and the other two will be larger firm. The case studies will chronicle the two types of decisions: one to build a high level green home such as LEED and one to build a lower level green home such as Energy Star. This part of the project seeks to document the "going green" or change process in the real estate development process and illuminate differences in small/medium versus large firms that are thought to have impacts on innovation. The understanding of this process for developers will provide an understanding of the timing of opportunities to influence decisions to build low-Carbon homes. Subsequent to the case studies, I will build a database of new home builders in New Jersey with a record of those that have participated in LEED Homes, Energy Star Homes, and New Jersey Green Homes. Using this database, a survey of the general population of New Jersey real estate developers with an oversampling of those that have built Energy Star Homes, LEED Homes, or participated in the New Jersey Green Homes programs will be conducted. This survey will collect data on firm characteristics, past building experiences, organizational networks, and perceptions of costs and benefits of building/participating in various green building labeling programs. Finally, a model of New Jersey real estate developer decision-making, using estimated greenhouse gas emission reductions from homes built in compliance with LEED, Energy Star and New Jersey Green Homes and differential uptake of these programs based on underlying factors for adoption developer from the survey, will be built to project potential greenhouse gas emission savings. Greenhouse gas impacts of policies shifting underlying factors of real estate decision-making can be modeled. This project will identify real estate developers that have pursued climate-friendly practices in New Jersey, the factors that have influenced real estate developers to uptake two climate-friendly practices of construction of energy-efficient homes, and model the greenhouse gas savings of differential adoption of these practices. Knowledge about these factors will help regional, state, and local governments develop policies to increase climate-friendly development and improve measurement of greenhouse gas reductions. In addition, understanding real estate developer's decision-making process can provide a basis for anti-sprawl and green building advocates to develop targeted integrative strategies to influence climate-friendly development. Key findings will be distributed in print and through meetings to those trying to influence homebuilders practices.

Progress 01/01/10 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project enabled me to interact with researchers across several fields in engineering and write several grants exploring the human-technology connection in reducing the Carbon footprints of New Jersey homes. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project explored multiple avenues to understanding how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from New Jersey homes. Three grants were written to examine the dimensions of real estate developers and actors involved in buildings and energy use (NOAA-SARP, NSF-IOC, and DOE). The Department of Energy project was funded to look at major building renovations processes at the Philadelphia Naval Yard and study the process of efficiency decision-making. This research developed and piloted a survey that began to look at what technologies builders pick and advocate for. Theory and research indicate that this process of attitude formation towards technologies is a social and technological process. We might imagine that it is more technological for this group of experts than the public who must respond on social cues and support from experts for their assessments. The key trend the survey indicated is that there is not as high a level of consensus around energy-efficient technologies for commercial building retrofits as one might expect. While this survey gives no definitive answer as to why this is, it appears that technological options where respondents had a strong consensus around key technological considerations (i.e. – many respondents identified a lot of energy saving potential or ease of application), this led to higher levels of general consensus on the usefulness of the technology. When no clear technological considerations emerge on some of the other technologies, we must wonder if this is a case of unfamiliarity, less clarity and certainty, or if these technologies simply aren’t as clearcut “winners” as high efficiency packaged rooftop AC and integrate lighting. Understanding how homeowners also became a focus of the research, particularly since their acceptance of new technologies and changing energy use habits is part of the de-carbonization of New Jersey buildings.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Shwom, R. and Lorenzen, J. A. 2012. Changing household consumption to address climate change: social scientific insights and challenges. WIREs Clim Change, 3: 379395. doi: 10.1002/wcc.182 http://wires.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WiresArticle/wisId-WCC182.html

Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: My research on de-carbonizing households has shifted from real estate developers, the initial focus, to households themselves, though the intention is to eventually understand interactions between them. To this end I conducted literature reviews and distributed research results via the American Sociological Association's Task Force on Climate Change and participation in the drafting of their consumption and leading a chapter on public opinion on climate change. This task force is intended to reach other sociologists and policymakers. I have also presented at the Climate, Mind and Behavior conference of the Garrison Institute, presenting on approaches to identifying household behaviors and criteria for screening. Audiences reached through the Climate Mind and Behavior conference were energy savings program managers and real estate managers. I have also been active in the Sustainable Consumption Research Action Intiative (SCORAI) network and have distributed research results through their list-serve and have submitted an abstract for their symposium in June that has been accepted. Finally, I have developed a survey of energy saving and green behaviors in North America with my colleague Jonn Axsen at Simon Fraser University that will be fielded in February. This survey will provide important information on consumption behaviors that will be used to develop a research proposal on social institutions and consumption. PARTICIPANTS: Jonn Axsen (assistant professor) and Danette Moulette (graduate student) , of Simon Fraser University worked to develop a survey of green consumption behaviors with me. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: As a proposal to study real estate developers was not funded and they are a difficult audience to study, I shifted my work to focus on households (the general public) - a more easily reachable audience that are an important part of de-carbonizing homes.

Impacts
The insights developed on reviewing climate-significant consumption from multiple disciplines (economics, sociology, psychology, etc.) resulted in a publications that began to inform us on how different models of consumptive behavior apply to different populations of people (defined by context and/or demographics and/or social psychological variables). These insights were also used to inform the development of the survey and questions and variables asked.

Publications

• Shwom, R. and Lorenzen, J. A. 2012. Changing household consumption to address climate change: social scientific insights and challenges. WIREs Climate Change.
• Shwom, R. 2011. A middle range theory of energy politics: The U.S. struggle for energy efficient appliances. Environmental Politics. 20 (5).

Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The outputs for this project are: 1)A survey of commercial architects, engineers, developers and researchers working on a commercial building renovation to improve efficiency. This survey focused on assessing how these professionals assess energy efficient technologies. This research has been reported back to the group of researchers and professionals (the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster - GPIC) and will be used for future research comparing these assessments to commercial building owners and users. 2)A review of the literature on consumption and climate change. This focus on how consumption is related to climate change and household actions that lead to greenhouse gas emissions and models of how consumers behave. This will be presented to decision-makers and practitioners seeking to transform public perceptions and action on climate change at the Climate Mind Behavior Symposium. This literature review is also being used to inform the American Sociological Association's Task Force on Climate Change that seeks to identify how sociology can inform society's efforts to adapt and mitigate to climate change 3)Interviews with energy efficiency non-profit leaders on tactical decisions and factors that influence them. These interviews are part of a project focused on the politics that seek to create the market conditions to transform and de-carbonize home energy use. PARTICIPANTS: Janet Lorenzen is a graduate student at Rutgers University and worked as a research assistant on the Climate Change and Consumption paper. The survey research on technology assessments of professionals has been undertaken within a large group of university researchers and practictioners through the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster (GPIC) funded by the Dept. of Energy and run through Penn State. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
The outcomes for this project are: 1)From the survey we learned that the researchers, engineers and architects appear to take into account and weigh various technical factors more than the general public appears to from past surveys. 2)From the literature review on consumption and climate change we identified that models of consumer behavior differ across disciplines and that understanding the contexts in which situations these models apply is important for future research paths. 3) Interviews with energy efficient non-profit leaders has provided feedback in how they react to changes in the political environment and seek to improve energy efficiency. These interviews have highlighted the factors that are important to them in their partnering with businesses and the importance of legitimacy and trust to non-profits as they balance their position among other non-profits, businesses, and government.

Publications

• Shwom, R. 2011. A middle range theory of energy politics: The U.S. struggle for energy efficient appliances. Environmental Politics. 20,5,706 to 727.

Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Grant Proposal to Department of Energy. Sub-contractor. U.S. Department of Energy (2011-2016). "Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings: Subtask - Interaction of Human Behavior and Building Performance" with Clint Andrews. Sub-task "Document building occupants'and builder roles in and reactions to technology policy experiments and deployments" Funded $98,000.00 Grant Proposal to National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Sectoral Applications Research Program. PI Rachael Shwom. "Coastal Residential Real Estate Developers: Assessing Potential for Innovation in Homebuilding Practices for a Changing Climate." Not funded. Grant Proposal to National Science Foundation, Innovation and Organizational Sciences. PI Tom Rudel, R.Shwom co-investigator. Between Economic Distress and Technological Change: Builders and GHG Emissions in an American Metropolis.' Not funded. Conducted literature review on social,economic and political dimensions of the commercial and residential building processes. Began compiling database of New Jersey residential real estate developers. PARTICIPANTS: In seeking further support for this work, I have worked with professors at Rutgers (Tom Rudel, Clint Andrews, Monica Mazurek) and the Rutgers Center for Green Building. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The project has currently expanded the focus to include the building/major renovation of commercial buildings in order to take advantage of the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster funding and location. Major renovations of the current commercial building stock in the U.S. are an important aspect of addressing building energy use. Understanding how renewable and energy efficient technologies are integrated into a commercial building renovation can contribute to the U.S.'s capacity for mitigating its greenhouse gas emissions. The current focus of these efforts is the analysis of the charette and building design process taking place for the major renovation of Building 661 in the Philadelphia Naval Yard. This task will document how building users, engineers, builders, and others interact and make decisions about what energy reducing technologies and design features are adopted.

Impacts
There are no outcomes or impacts of this project to date.

Publications

• No publications reported this period