文章基本信息

标题：The power and value of green in promoting sustainable transport behavior
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作者：David Gaker ; David Vautin ; Akshay Vij 等
期刊名称：Environmental Research Letters
印刷版ISSN：1748-9326
电子版ISSN：1748-9326
出版年度：2011
卷号：6
期号：3
页码：034010-034010
DOI：10.1088/1748-9326/6/3/034010
语种：English
出版社：IOP Publishing Ltd
摘要：While it is increasingly popular to broadcast information regarding environmental impact, little is known regarding the effects that this information has on human behavior. This research aims to provide insight into whether, and to what extent, presenting environmental attributes of transport alternatives influences individual transport decisions. We designed and conducted three experiments in which subjects (UC Berkeley undergraduates) were presented with hypothetical scenarios of transport decisions, including auto purchase choice, mode choice, and route choice. We analyzed their decisions via a choice model to determine how they value reducing their emissions relative to other attributes. We found that our subjects are willing to adjust their behavior to reduce emissions, exhibiting an average willingness to pay for emissions reduction, or value of green (VoG), of 15 cents per pound of CO₂ saved. Despite concern that people cannot meaningfully process quantities of CO₂, we found evidence to the contrary in our subject pool in that the estimated VoG was consistent across context (the wide range of transport decisions that we presented) and presentation (e.g., whether the information was presented in tons or pounds, or whether a social reference point of the emissions of an average person was provided). We also found significant heterogeneity in VoG, with most of the respondents valuing green somewhere between 0 and 70 cents per pound and with women, on average, willing to pay 7 cents more per saved pound than men. While the findings are encouraging, further work is required to determine whether they hold outside of a lab environment and with a more representative pool of subjects.