Emission reduction activities in private households: Development of evaluation criteria and an application to the transport sector : working paper

TLDR: Off4Firms as mentioned in this paper is an applied research and innovation project aiming at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption of private households, where firms can evaluate measures aiming at reductions in energy use and CO2 emissions in their employees' private lives.

Abstract: .................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 6 1. Evaluation criteria for reduction activities ...................................................................................................... 7 2. 2.1. Technical reduction potential ................................................................................................................ 8 2.2. Cost efficiency of the reduction activities ........................................................................................... 12 2.3. Verifiability of the CO2 emissions and energy consumption reductions ............................................. 13 2.4. Implementation barriers ..................................................................................................................... 15 2.5. Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................................. 18 Exemplary evaluation of reduction activities in transportation.................................................................... 19 3. 3.1. Purchase of new cars ........................................................................................................................... 19 3.1.1. Baseline definition ........................................................................................................................... 20 3.1.2. Technical reduction potential ......................................................................................................... 21 3.1.3. Cost efficiency ................................................................................................................................. 24 3.1.4. Verifiability ...................................................................................................................................... 27 3.1.5. Implementation barriers ................................................................................................................. 29 3.1.6. Results ............................................................................................................................................. 31 3.2. Choice of transportation means .......................................................................................................... 32 3.2.1. Baseline definition ........................................................................................................................... 32 3.2.2. Technical reduction potential ......................................................................................................... 34 3.2.3. Cost efficiency ................................................................................................................................. 36 3.2.4. Verifiability ...................................................................................................................................... 38 3.2.5. Implementation barriers ................................................................................................................. 40 3.2.6. Results ............................................................................................................................................. 42 3.3. Results and qualitative rating of reduction activities in the transport sector ..................................... 43 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 46 4. Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... 47 5. References .................................................................................................................................................... 48 6. Annex .................................................................................................................................................................... 55 Off4Firms Working Paper D1.1. Off4Firms in a Nutshell 4 Off4Firms in a Nutshell Off4Firms – Employer-led incentives for households’ reductions in CO2 emissions and energy consumption Off4Firms is an applied research and innovation project aiming at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption of private households. The project is led by ETH Zurich (Chair of Economics, Prof. Renate Schubert) and involves project partners from academia and business: Wageningen University, South Pole Carbon, Swiss Re, and EWZ. Partially financed by EIT Climate-KIC, the project runs from April 2012 until March 2014. Being one of the world’s largest emitters, households in aggregate bear an enormous potential for reducing emissions and energy consumption. Off4Firms starts from the premise that one effective way of triggering change in households is through household members’ employers. Off4Firms creates a win-win situation for households and firms: both profit from employees saving energy and reducing CO2 in their households. Employees benefit because they change their energy-related behaviour with the support of their employer. This change pays for – for example through lower energy costs. Companies, on the other hand, benefit from reputation gains as employers and in the public. In addition, under specific conditions – they may profit from offsetting their emissions by their employees’ emission reductions. Off4Firms develops a comprehensive programme for firms to use this great potential in an efficient way. This project enables firms to evaluate measures aiming at reductions in energy use and CO2 emissions in their employees’ private lives. Evaluation criteria are the effectiveness, cost efficiency, verifiability and acceptability of measures for the employees. Best practice measures will be identified and a tool kit will be provided, enabling the development of company-tailored CO2 or energy reduction measures. These measures will be brought to scale by a dedicated business unit. In addition, the policy framework making such measures a win-win strategy for households and for firms will be depicted. Off4Firms Working Paper D1.1. Abstract