Promoting green buildings: Do Chinese consumers care about green building enhancements?

Abstract

This paper explores sustainability-related choices about buildings by analysing how consumers rated the relative importance of various attributes of conventional and green buildings. It also analyses how consumers judge environmental and health-oriented improvements in green buildings.Unlike previous studies, this research applied conjoint analysis to explore the green building market at the consumer's level by regarding green buildings as nondurable green products and services. We used a survey to gather consumer preferences about several green building hotel models which partly applied green energy, modern wood structures and improved indoor environmental quality (IEQ). In total, 341 consumers participated the survey in two of China's largest cities: Beijing and Shanghai. The results revealed that green energy was the most preferred attribute of green buildings, exerting an even stronger overall effect on consumer choice than price.Afterwards, we identified distinct consumer segments and determined the background characteristics of each segment based on the similarities in the preferences for each attribute. The largest consumer segment, consisting of younger consumers, ranked green energy as the most important criterion. However, an improved indoor environmental quality was generally not highly ranked, and individuals in the consumer segment, which included more older and female consumers, were more likely to reject modern wood structures. The results also revealed that higher-income individuals were most concerned with price, and consumers with higher levels of education were willing to pay more to support green buildings. K E Y W O R D SChinese market, conjoint analysis, consumer preference, green building, wood structure Int J Consum Stud. 2017;41:545-557.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ijcs

Sustainability-Driven New Business Models in Wood Construction Towards 2030

“…Yet, they were aware of consumer needs concerning wooden housing, such as builders of one-family houses (using wood as construction material) as well as increasing pro-environmental attitudes among consumers (Holopainen et al 2014;Luo et al 2017). The respondents had noticed this consumer values shift towards green consumption: "I think these [voices] valuing nature, decreasing consumption are important, I mean sustainable development and consumption, I would say those issues are guiding consumer choices in the future" Field manager, Finland; "The needs of endusers and fulfilling those … I think these environmental, I mean the positive influences of wooden material should communicate better [for consumers]" Research manager, Finland; "Wood has a positive image, those green values, wood as good for the health, those kind of things … greenness is increasing" Technical manager, Finland.…”

“…Particularly, difficulties have emerged in humidity control which influences the indoor air quality, but also makes structures prone to the growth of mould. As Luo et al (2017) noted, the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) has caused increasing public and scientific concern (e.g. eye, nose and throat irritation, headache, breathing problems).…”

“…Recently, studies on consumer's sustainability related choices towards green building have started to gain more ground (e.g. Luo et al 2017;Gold & Rubik 2009;Hoffman & Henn 2008;Holopainen et al 2014;Hoibo et al 2015).…”

Do Consumers Care about the Energy Efficiency of Buildings? Understanding Residential Choice Based on Energy Performance Certificates

“…Although many studies have focused on building energy performance and related policies, only a few studies have attempted to analyze consumer perceptions of energy-efficient buildings [20,21,[39][40][41][42][43]. Hoffman and Henn (2008) [39] and Yau (2012) [40] demonstrate that consumers are affected by several factors when deciding to move into energy-efficient buildings, such as economic or/and psychological reasons.…”

“…Chau et al (2010) [20] apply discrete choice experiments to identify the factors affecting the preference for energy-efficient buildings in Hong Kong. Similarly, Luo et al (2017) [41] analyze the green building market from a consumer perspective based on conjoint analysis. Four attributes such as the energy types (green energy or conventional energy), IEQ (indoor environmental quality), construction material, and price are considered here.…”