Investing in Sustainable Built Environments: The Willingness to Pay for Green Roofs and Green Walls

Abstract

Green infrastructure, such as green roofs/walls, plays a key role in addressing urban problems. Despite the well-established sustainable mentality, aspects such as aesthetics, recreation, and welfare are still the main drivers for undertaking such investments. Several studies have focused on proving the benefits of green infrastructure, namely, thermal insulation, air quality, and others. However, significant soft benefits have not yet been properly addressed. It is, therefore, important to understand how much citizens are willing to invest in those mitigating measures and list the aspects that influence that value. This study suggests a methodology based on stated preferences to evaluate the willingness-to-pay of owner/tenants for green roofs/walls in residential buildings and determine the influence of multiple factors. Results show that consumers reveal higher willingness-to-pay for accessible green roofs. Knowledge of benefits and the accessibility of green roofs have a great impact on the willingness-to-pay. Recreation benefit is at the forefront of individuals’ concerns; even more than aesthetics.

Public attitudes and preferences for green rooftop technologies in the US: a choice experiment

“…This novel finding suggests that providing the public with more information about GRs could increase the WTP for government-sponsored programs. Similarly, previous research has also found that knowledge of the benefits of GRs has a significant impact on the WTP for them, as reported by Teotónio et al (2020) and Jungels et al (2013). Our results also point out that, after information on GRs was provided, respondents that cited a particular reason for not supporting the GR Program increased; however, these differences were not significant.…”

“…Most recently, Netusil et al (2022) used a choice experiment to reveal that households, depending on the program characteristics and benefits derived, are WTP between $202 and $442 in a one-time payment for a government-sponsored GR program that runs for a year. A study by Teotónio et al (2020) in Portugal found that individuals were more likely to pay a higher proportion of their rent or mortgage for the installation of GRs that they can access as opposed to those that are not accessible. The study found that 10% and 32% of the sample refused to invest and that 33% and 11.3% were willing to pay greater than 5% but less than 10% of their rent or mortgage for the installations of accesibale and inaccessible GRs respectfully.…”

Linking FDI and Sustainable Environment in EU Countries

“…The basic idea is that, in the foreign market, companies can have growth prospects through the mechanism of horizontal or vertical diversification. Diversification can be done by gaining new product lines or activities or by gaining knowledge [39][40][41][42].…”

The role of green roofs in post COVID-19 confinement: An analysis of willingness to pay

“…Green roofs can have a positive net present value when their long-term benefits are considered [44,[46][47][48][49][50][51]. Therefore, it is important to determine the citizens' preferences [52,53] and their availability to invest in green roofs [54].…”

“…Zhang et al investigated the WTP of Beijing residents for the benefits of green roofs in mitigating the urban heat island effect [59]. Teotónio et al refer to green roofs accessibility and recreational benefit as factors influencing the WTP of Portugal residents [54].…”