Abstract

Community energy initiatives are set up by volunteers in local communities to promote sustainable energy behaviors and help to facilitate a sustainable energy transition. A key question is what motivates people to be involved in such initiatives. We propose that next to a stronger personal motivation for sustainable energy, people’s perception that their community is motivated to engage in sustainable energy and their involvement in the community (i.e., community identification and interpersonal contact) may affect their initiative involvement. We tested this proposition with a questionnaire study among inhabitants of seven local communities (N = 439). Results suggested that community factors are uniquely related to initiative involvement (willingness to actively participate and attendance of an initiative meeting) next to personal sustainable energy motivations. In particular, stronger community identification and more interpersonal contact with other community members increased the likelihood that people become involved in a community initiative, but the perception of the sustainable energy motivation of one’s community was not uniquely related to initiative involvement. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Highlights

  • Community energy initiatives (CEIs) could help in promoting a sustainable energy transition (Middlemiss and Parrish, 2010; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2018; Creamer et al, 2019)

  • This paper addresses the question of why people become involved in CEIs by investigating the relationship between different community factors and initiative involvement, taking into account people’s personal sustainable energy motivations

  • We examined the role of community sustainable energy motivation and two indicators of community involvement—the level of identification with the community and the level of interpersonal contact with other community members—in explaining people’s willingness to actively participate in a CEI and their attendance of an initiative meeting

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Summary

Introduction

Community energy initiatives (CEIs) could help in promoting a sustainable energy transition (Middlemiss and Parrish, 2010; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2018; Creamer et al, 2019). Activities include the (collective) purchase of solar cells and better home insulation, producing renewable energy locally, encouraging energy saving at home, or even achieving energy neutrality of the entire community. Research suggests that those involved in CEIs generally behave more sustainably (Middlemiss, 2011; Sloot et al, 2018). To achieve their full potential, it is key that a sufficient number of community members become involved in a CEI. This raises the question of what motivates people’s involvement in a CEI

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